The new line-up of Judas Priest with Richie Faulkner on guitar performed for the first time on Wednesday’s (25 May 2011) American Idol finale.
They hit the stage with James Durbin, the 22-year-old rocker from Santa Cruz, California, who was eliminated from American Idol earlier in the month but who made a return appearance during tonight’s broadcast. Priest and Durbin performed Living After Midnight and Breaking The Law.
You can see the performance in the video below.
Priest launch the US leg of their farewell world tour on October 12 in San Antonio and the band are promising to go out with a bang. Rob Halford said, “We’re pulling out all the stops. We’ve built a brand new stage set, we’ve got all the effects that people love us for — the lasers, the fire, the bombs, the smoke, new costumes, and the bike. It’s just a full-on Metal extravaganza.”
The band will play something from every one of their albums, including some numbers that have never been performed live before. As for whether this is really the end of Judas Priest’s touring days, Glenn Tipton said, “If somebody came along and said, ‘Would you do a small string of dates,’ we wouldn’t automatically say no to that. But in general, this is probably the last chance you’ll get to see Priest live.”
Here’s the performance from American Idol.
All five band members took part in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon at the Renaissance Hotel at Highland and Hollywood in Los Angeles to answer questions about the upcoming tour and to formally introduce Richie. And here it is…