Judas Priest have lost the man who held down the bottom end for more than half a century. Ian Hill, the band’s bassist and its longest-serving member, announced his retirement on Friday, October 9, with immediate effect. Uriah Heep’s Davey Rimmer steps in.
Hill is 74. He played on every one of Judas Priest’s 19 studio albums, from 1974’s Rocka Rolla to 2024’s Invincible Shield, and he outlasted every lineup change the band went through along the way. Singers came and went, drummers came and went, K.K. Downing left, Glenn Tipton stepped back from touring. Hill was always there, stage left, planted in front of the amps.
“That time has come”
The announcement came as a personal statement from Hill, shared by the band. In it, he explains that for years he has been dealing with what he calls “evil arthritis,” and that it is now advanced in his left shoulder and right hand, established in his right shoulder, and present in both knees. According to Guitar World’s report on the statement, he has been managing it with painkillers, gels and cortisone injections.
Whenever interviewers asked him how long he could keep going, Hill says, his answer was always the same: until his performances suffered. “I hate to say it, but that time has come,” he wrote, as Louder reported.
He also wrote about what comes next for him personally. Having, in his words, neglected his family life for 57 years, he says he intends to spend the years he has left making up for it. He signed off by thanking the fans for the life they had let him live.
The band’s own message called him “the backbone of Judas Priest,” according to Blabbermouth, and wished him well in his retirement.
How it got here
The retirement did not come out of nowhere. Last month, at the end of the band’s 2026 “Faithkeepers” European tour, Hill missed a Judas Priest show for what was reported as the first time since he joined the band. Ahead of the final date at London’s Eventim Apollo on September 21, the band said he had a badly damaged tendon in his left arm, and Rimmer played the show in his place.
Hill’s statement fills in what actually happened. He says he snapped a tendon in his left shoulder just before the encores at the band’s show in Brussels, two days before London, which left him unable to lift his arm far enough to reach the neck of his bass. Specialists told him he might be able to avoid surgery, he says, but there was no guarantee he would get back enough strength in the shoulder and arm to get through a full stage show.
Accounts of how long Hill has been in the band differ slightly from outlet to outlet. Most headlines say 56 years, which counts from 1970, when Louder and Guitar World both date his joining. Hill’s own statement refers to 57 years, and Guitar World’s headline rounds it up to “nearly 60.” Older band histories often describe him as a founding member from the late 1960s, when he and Downing were playing together in the West Bromwich group that grew into Priest. Whichever number you use, nobody has been in Judas Priest longer.
Who is Davey Rimmer?
The band had seen this possibility coming. According to Blabbermouth, they had already arranged for Rimmer to learn the set in case Hill had to withdraw, which is why the London show went ahead without a cancellation.
Rimmer is the current bassist in Uriah Heep, and he is no stranger to Priest’s inner circle. He plays alongside Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner in Elegant Weapons, the side project Faulkner formed with singer Ronnie Romero and drummer Christopher Williams. In his statement, Hill called Rimmer “the obvious choice” to take over.
What happens next
Judas Priest are off the road for now. Their next scheduled appearance is at the Tons of Rock festival in Oslo, Norway, in June 2027, which on the current schedule would be Rimmer’s first show as a full member rather than a fill-in.
Rob Halford is now the only member of the Rocka Rolla lineup still touring with the band. Tipton, who has Parkinson’s disease, stopped touring in 2018 but still works on new material in the studio with Faulkner, according to Guitar World.
For fans, the change is easy to underestimate. Bass players in metal rarely get the spotlight, and Hill never asked for it. His job was to lock in with the drums and make Downing, Tipton and later Faulkner sound enormous, and he did it on “Breaking the Law,” “Living After Midnight,” “Painkiller” and everything else. He also stood beside his bandmates in a Reno courtroom in 1990, when the band was sued over claims of subliminal messages on Stained Class, a case they won.
The band has not said whether Hill will appear with them again for a farewell moment. For now, his last stage appearance with Judas Priest was that night in Brussels in September, when the injury forced him off just before the encores.
