{"id":641323,"date":"2026-10-09T15:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/641323\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T15:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:16:09","slug":"judas-priest-bassist-ian-hill-announces-retirement-time-has-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/641323\/","title":{"rendered":"Judas Priest Bassist Ian Hill Announces Retirement: ‘Time Has Come’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJudas Priest<\/a> bassist Ian Hill, the longest-serving member of the heavy metal legends, has announced his retirement from the band.<\/p>\n

\n\tHill revealed his departure to fans in a lengthy statement on Friday, citing the \u201cevil arthritis\u201d and other injuries as the reason for his exit. \u201cFor a long time now, when asked \u2018how long can you continue\u2019 \u2013 I\u2019ve always answered \u2018until my performances suffer\u2019\u2026. I hate to say it, but that time has come,\u201d Hill wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor some years now, I\u2019ve been struggling with the onset of the evil arthritis, which is now in an advanced state in my left shoulder and right hand, established in my right shoulder, and present in both knees. I\u2019ve been fighting this with painkilling pills, gels, and recently with cortisone injections in my shoulder and hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHill said that while he was able to contribute bass lines to Judas Priest\u2019s upcoming album, there was concern whether he\u2019d be able to participate in the band\u2019s recent European tour, so the band enlisted Uriah Heep\u2019s Davey Rimmer as an understudy. Rimmer was forced to step in when Hill snapped \u201ca tendon in my left shoulder (as if I didn\u2019t have enough problems with it!) just before the encores during the Brussels show two days before. This led to me not being able to lift my arm enough to reach the neck of my bass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHill continued, \u201cI\u2019ve seen specialists, who suggest I might get away without surgery, but even if I don\u2019t there\u2019s no guarantee either way that I\u2019ll have enough strength in my shoulder\/arm to complete a whole stage show. In view of all this, and the fact that I\u2019ve neglected my family life for fifty seven years, I\u2019ve decided to retire and spend the remaining years making up for it, and doing things with them before it involves one of \u2018em pushing me around in a wheelchair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHill and childhood friend and guitarist K.K. Downing joined Judas Priest in 1970, a year after singer Al Atkins founded the group. The band has cycled through dozens of lineup changes since then \u2014 singer Rob Halford (who was the brother of Hill\u2019s girlfriend at the time) joined in 1973, guitarist Glenn Tipton joined in 1974, and Downing left the group in 2011 \u2014 but Hill remained a constant, appearing on every studio album from their 1974 debut Rocka Rolla to the upcoming follow-up to 2024\u2019s Invincible Shield.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is with heavy hearts that we are sending out this personal message from our Ian\u2026.he has been the backbone of Judas Priest for so long and will be greatly missed by us all,\u201d Judas Priest added on social media while confirming Rimmer would serve as their new bassist. \u201cWe wish him well in his retirement and welcome Davey into the Priest Family\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tHill and Judas Priest were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. The band currently has no tour dates scheduled until summer 2027.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s not a day goes by where I don\u2019t give thanks for the incredible journey I\u2019ve lived through, and it just remains for me to say that I love you all, and thank you for the life you\u2019ve let me live,\u201d Hill added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill, the longest-serving member of the heavy metal legends, has announced his retirement from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,18305,409],"class_list":["post-641323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-judas-priest","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}