Jay Nanda of the San Antonio Metal Music Examiner recently conducted an interview with bassist Ian Hill of British heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: How is [the new JUDAS PRIEST guitarist] Richie [Faulkner] working out, and what can we expect of someone we've never seen play with PRIEST before?

Ian: Yeah, Richie is an altogether great talent. An absolutely excellent guitarist. He does what Ken [former PRIEST guitarist Kenneth "K.K." Downing] did, plus his own little traits. He's a great performer and character. We've been really lucky to find him. Even the way we found him — we weren't even looking. [laughs] Someone (else) was going to take over for Ken, and they couldn't do it, and it was him. You find what you can. We had a chat with him and gave him a go, and thank God. The crowd is taking to him well, and with all due respect to Ken, no one's missing him. [laughs] No one's asking about Ken.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: Really, you're not getting any feedback about K.K. not being there?

Ian: No, and you'll know why when you see Richie perform.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: You go back with K.K. during your schooldays, I believe, so it can be said that you're the closest to him. What was your first reaction when he made it known he was stepping away?

Ian: We were all absolutely stopped in our tracks. When he came up and announced that he didn't want to carry on . . . Richie knew for a month that he had the job, but God bless him, he kept his mouth shut. [laughs] We said, "Richie, if he doesn't come back, you've got the job." He must have been waiting to tell somebody.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: K.K. made it clear that it wasn't his health or his golf interests. Was it songwriting differences or a disagreement on whether this should be the final tour?

Ian: I don't know. Anything I say would be speculation. Personally, I think he had enough. Out of all of us, maybe he's the one who enjoyed it the least. If you ever get the opportunity, that's something you'd have to ask him.

San Antonio Metal Music Examiner: Rob [Halford, vocals] reportedly said the other day that you all have made significant progress on the next album. How far along are you, and what can you tell me about the songs or direction of it?

Ian: We pretty much finished three tracks. Obviously, we did this before Richie had come along. Rob and myself and Glenn [Tipton] and Scott [Travis]. There's still Richie's input to go on top of that. Rob and Glenn have got a lot of songs knocked out. My ideas, too, this time around and with Richie's input, we'll start on completing this album sometime next year. We're going to carry on from where we left off with "Angel Of Retribution". After the concept album ["Nostradamus"], we're going to get back to the heavy metal that PRIEST is known for.

Read the entire interview from the San Antonio Metal Music Examiner.