Judas Priest

British Heavy Metal band preceding the ‘New Wave of British Heavy Metal’ movement.

The band was formed in Birmingham, England in 1969 by guitarist John Perry (who died shortly after and was replaced by Glenn Tipton, was also added to the line-up in 1974.

The line-up featuring Halford, Downing, Tipton and Hill existed between 1974 and 1990. Priest went through a number of drummers (Hinch, Alan Moore, Simon Phillips and Les Binks) between its formation and 1980 when Scott Travis ed the band. In mid 1990 the band was taken to court over the attempted suicide of two young boys in Reno, allegedly driven by subliminal messages on its Stained Class album. The case was eventually thrown out of court.

Halford left the group in 1993 to pursue a solo career. Tim "Ripper" Owens, an Ohioan tribute band singer was chosen and recorded 4 albums (2 studio, 2 live) with the band. In 2003, Judas Priest’s 1990 line-up was restored when Rob Halford returned to the group after rekindling the relationship during work on Judas Priest’s 4-CD career retrospective “Metalogy.” K.K. Downing left the band in 2009 and was replaced by Richie Faulkner. This line-up recorded two more studio albums before Tipton had to retire due to illness in 2018. For the Firepower tour he was temporarily replaced by Andy Sneap, making Hill and Halford the only remaining from the band's early era.