Ian Hill, the last original member of Judas Priest and the only musician to play on every studio album the band has released, announced his retirement Friday, ending a run that began in 1970.
In a statement shared by the band, the 74-year-old bassist said the standard he had set for himself had finally been met. “For a long time now, when asked ‘how long can you continue’ — I’ve always answered ‘until my performances suffer,’” Hill wrote. “I hate to say it, but that time has come.”
Hill said he has been fighting advanced arthritis for years — severe in his left shoulder and right hand, established in his right shoulder, and present in both knees — with painkillers, gels, and recent cortisone injections. The breaking point came on the band’s European tour. Just before the encores at a show in Brussels, he snapped a tendon in his left shoulder and could no longer lift his arm high enough to reach the neck of his bass. Two days later, on September 21 at London’s Eventim Apollo, Uriah Heep bassist Davey Rimmer stood in. Hill called it the first show he had missed in 56 years, and credited Rimmer with an “incredible performance at such short notice.”
Specialists have told Hill he might avoid surgery. He said there is no guarantee, either way, that his shoulder and arm will be strong enough for a full stage show. He also framed the decision as personal. After what he called 57 years of neglecting his family, he wants the remaining years with them “before it involves one of ’em pushing me around in a wheelchair.”
He leaves the bass chair to Rimmer, Uriah Heep’s bassist since 2013 and a bandmate of Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner in Elegant Weapons. “He’s a great bassist, and a genuinely nice bloke who’ll fit the job perfectly,” Hill wrote. Uriah Heep has said Rimmer will continue with that band through 2026 and on 2027 dates where the schedules allow. Priest’s next listed show is in Oslo in June 2027.
The band’s own note was short. “He has been the backbone of Judas Priest for so long and will be greatly missed by us all,” they wrote, welcoming Rimmer “into the Priest family.”
Hill’s place in that history is hard to overstate. Born Ian Frank Hill in West Bromwich, England, on January 20, 1952, he learned double bass from his father, a local jazz player who died when Hill was 15. In 1970 he and schoolmate K.K. Downing joined the Birmingham group that had formed the year before. Hill is also the reason Rob Halford is in the band: while dating Halford’s sister, he mentioned Priest needed a singer. Halford left his previous group and took the job.
From Rocka Rolla in 1974 through Invincible Shield in 2024, Hill’s bass is on every Priest studio record — the low end under “Breaking the Law,” “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’,” “Painkiller,” and the rest of a catalog that helped define heavy metal. Downing left in 2011. Glenn Tipton, who joined in 1974, has stepped back from full touring because of Parkinson’s disease. With Hill’s exit, no founding member remains on stage.
One chapter is already on tape. Hill said he was able to record bass lines for the band’s next album before the injury ended his touring. He closed the letter without ceremony: “There’s not a day goes by where I don’t give thanks for the incredible journey I’ve lived through, and it just remains for me to say that I love you all, and thank you for the life you’ve let me live.”
