JUDAS PRIEST finished their 2026 "Faithkeepers" European tour on Monday night at the Eventim Apollo in London without the only man on stage who had been there since the beginning. Ian Hill sat the show out with what the band described as "a badly damaged tendon in his left arm". URIAH HEEP's Dave Rimmer played bass in his place.
The announcement came the same day, in a short statement on the band's social media. "Ian has a badly damaged tendon in his left arm so unfortunately he won't be able to play at our Hammersmith Apollo Eventim show on Monday 21st September," it read. "Our good friend Davey Rimmer (URIAH HEEP) will be playing with us so the show will go on. Ian sends his grateful appreciation to our fans for your caring and understanding."
Rimmer was not a cold call. He plays alongside PRIEST guitarist Richie Faulkner in ELEGANT WEAPONS, the project that also features Ronnie Romero on vocals and ACCEPT's Christopher Williams on drums.
The absence is worth stating plainly, because of how rarely it happens. Hill is the sole remaining original member of a band that formed in 1969, seven years before its first album. Rob Halford joined in 1973, Glenn Tipton in 1974; Halford left in the early 1990s and returned in 2003; K.K. Downing departed in 2011 and Faulkner took his place. Through all of it, Hill stayed. He has played on every JUDAS PRIEST studio album and performed at close to 3,000 concerts with the band.
He is now 74, and he has been asked about retirement often enough to have a standard answer. "No, we have no plan to retire yet. We're still able to perform," he told Spain's Rock FM in March 2024. "The time to think about retiring is when your performances start to dip and you're not doing too well. You have to think about it then. We're not stupid; we know that we're not getting any younger and that there will be a time when we have to retire, but there's no plans to do so just yet."
The timing, at least, is merciful. Monday was the last date of the European run, which opened July 25 at Germany's BOBfest and included the first live airings of "The Ripper" and "Delivering The Goods" since 2019. PRIEST's next scheduled performance is not until June 2027, at the Tons Of Rock festival in Oslo — a long stretch to heal in.
The tour continues to support "Invincible Shield", the band's nineteenth studio album, which hit No. 1 in Germany, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland and entered the U.K. chart at No. 2.