We are just days away from Judas Priest kicking off the latest leg of their “50 Heavy Metal Years” Tour on October 13 and it appears they have another big anniversary in mind when it comes to picking out the setlist.
Guitarist Richie Faulkner spoke to KLPX-FM recently, sharing that the heavy metal icons are quite aware that their big commercial breakthrough album Screaming For Vengeance turned 40 years old this summer and will “reference” it in the tracks they’ll deliver on the upcoming fall trek.
Speaking with the station about the songs Judas Priest is preparing, Faulkner shared, “Well, I can say [the tour] is around the 40th anniversary of Screaming For Vengeance … so we’re gonna hit some moments from that record as like a tip of the cap to the album … I know some people like to wait and see what the setlist’s gonna be. I won’t spoil anything, but we will reference Screaming For Vengeance in a few places.”
Of course the album’s big hit, “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'” is already one of Judas Priests’ most played tracks, according to Setlist.fm, so that one seems to be a given. And as far as the rest of the set goes, Faulkner said be ready for some surprises too.
“There’s a couple of things that I haven’t played with the band [that we will play on this tour],” he added in his conversation with KLPX-FM. “I’ve been with the band for almost 12 years now, and we’re playing a couple of songs that I haven’t played with the band yet, which is exciting. We’re digging out a few which we haven’t played for a while … So it’s a refreshing setlist from our point of view as well, to be able to do some things that we haven’t done, and then hopefully that kind of reflects with the fans as well, to hear something new.”
Faulker also went into more detail about how Judas Priest selects their set list, and shared, “We don’t wanna repeat too much from the last tour, or if there’s a new album, we’re gonna hit a few [songs] … This being an anniversary tour, we kind of have free rein.”
He continued, “Sometimes what we do is literally me and Rob [Halford], we’ll write down songs that we think would be interesting on paper – literally cut them out, lay them all out on the table or whatever and position them and put them in the setlist, like old school. And we try to get a dynamic flow, so there’s a start, like an impact, and then it kind of tapers a little bit, and there’s a little bit of an ebb and flow. So we try and create a dynamic through the set, like I think the band have always done.”
Faulkner also spoke about his health, following his scary experience with an aortic rupture while onstage with Judas Priest at a show in 2021 that resulted in emergency heart surgery. The guitarist revealed on his Facebook page this week that he underwent a second operation recently to repair another issue that was causing a blood leak, but is feeling “well and strong” and ready to start the tour (supported by Queensryche) in a couple weeks.
You can find tickets to the upcoming dates here.
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