Judas Priest say listening to young metal bands keeps their own material fresh.
And speaking at a press conference at Hellfest in France, guitarist Glenn Tipton reports he’s proud to have had an influence on the current crop of up-and-coming artists – many of whom in turn have an impact on Priest’s work.
He says: “I think there’s still some great young bands around – we’ve got a lot of respect for the younger bands. You can still learn from them because they’re creating new parts of heavy metal. Every year, every decade it changes but the backbone is still heavy metal.
“If we’ve inspired some young bands, that’s great, and it makes us proud. We’re not stupid, we listen to the young bands as well, and we learn from them. We don’t don’t copy them but we get inspired.”
Tipton’s view is markedly different from that of Slayer’s Kerry King and Kiss bassist Gene Simmons. King this week said he felt rock was in dire need of new “guitar heroes” while Simmons has declared rock “dead” on more than one occasion.
Priest played this month’s Download and will be one of the headline acts at this year’s Knotfest in California on October 24-25.
The band are currently in the middle of a European tour, and return to the UK later this year for a run of six shows.
Judas Priest tour dates
Jun 30: Sofia Arena Armeec, Bulgaria
Jul 01: Bucharest Romexpo, Romania
Jul 04: Athens Rockwave Festival, Greece
Jul 11: Biloxi Hard Rock Live, MS, US
Jul 13: Grand Prairie Verizon Theatre, TX, US
Jul 15: Sterling Heights Freedom Hill Amphitheatre, MI, US
Jul 16: Oshkosh Rock, WI, US
Jul 18: Cadott Rock Fest, WI, US
Jul 23: Barcelona Rock Fest, Spain
Jul 24: Barcelona Rock Fest, Spain
Jul 25: Barcelona Rock Fest, Spain
Jul 26: Madrid Auditorio Miguel Rios De Rivas, Spain
Jul 29: Szekesfehervar Fezen Festival, Hungary
Jul 30: Graz See Rock Festival, Austria
Aug 01: Wacken Festival, Germany
Oct 24: San Bernardino, Knotfest, CA
Nov 23: Bradford St Georges, UK
Nov 24: Glasgow Barrowlands, UK
Nov 26: Wolverhampton Civic, UK
Nov 28: Manchester Apollo, UK
Nov 30: Portsmouth Guildhall, UK
Dec 01: London Brixton Academy
Dec 04: Karlstad Lofbergs Arena, Sweden
Dec 05: Stockholm Ericsson Globe, Sweden
Dec 07: Tallin Saku Arena, Estonia
Dec 08: Vilnius Siemens Arena, Lithuania
Dec 10: Gdasnk Ergo Arena, Poland
Dec 12: Brno Rondo Arena, Czech Republic
Dec 16: Brussels Vorst Nationaal, Belgium
