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Ian Hill has officially retired from Judas Priest. The band broke the news Friday with a personal letter from the bassist himself, closing out a run that began in 1970 and made him the last original member still in the lineup.
Hill, 74, pointed to advanced arthritis as the deciding factor. The condition has spread through his shoulders, right hand, and both knees, and years of painkillers and cortisone injections could only hold it off for so long. “I hate to say it, but that time has come,” he wrote, a callback to his standard answer whenever retirement came up: he’d keep going until his performances suffered.
The first crack showed last month. Hill tore a tendon in his shoulder right before the encores in Brussels, then had to sit out the September 21 tour closer at London’s Eventim Apollo — the first Priest show he’d ever missed. Uriah Heep’s Davey Rimmer covered that night, and he’s now the permanent replacement. Rimmer already plays alongside Richie Faulkner in Elegant Weapons, and Hill hand-picked him for the job.
Few careers in metal compare. Hill is the only musician on all 19 Judas Priest studio albums, from Rocka Rolla through Invincible Shield, with close to 3,000 shows behind him. He predates Rob Halford and Glenn Tipton in the band, and it was Hill — then dating Halford’s sister — who brought the singer in. In his farewell, he admitted he’d put the band ahead of his family for 57 years and plans to spend the time he has left making up for it.
“He has been the backbone of Judas Priest for so long and will be greatly missed by us all,” the band said. Priest’s next scheduled date is June 2027 in Oslo.
