In a new interview with Mexico’s OsvAlex Comunicación, JUDAS PRIEST bassist Ian Hill spoke about the band’s upcoming spring 2025 Latin American tour, including the May 4 concert in Mexico City with OPETH. Asked what fans can expect from the setlist for the upcoming shows, Hill said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Yeah, there’ll be three or four songs from the new record [2024’s ‘Invincible Shield’], which is really unfortunate, but it’s all we have time for, because you’ve only got a certain amount of time you can play and, obviously, for every new song you’ve gotta drop potentially somebody’s favorite. So it gets difficult, with the more material that you have. But we try and do our best to keep it fans ‘favorites — obviously, we like to keep the singalong songs. But the other back catalog songs, we try and keep them familiar, so everyone knows the songs. And then the three or four new ones. And we do our best to get a good blend of those three things. And I think we’ve done well.”We’ve been playing pretty much this set for a year now, ’cause we started about this time last year, actually — a little bit earlier, in February — so it’s well played in,” Hill explained. “And, obviously, the production goes along with the songs as well, which will be typical PRIEST things — lots of sound, lots of lights, things that move around, the motorcycle, what have you, the big screens at the back. It’ll be a typical PRIEST mega show. [Laughs] And, yeah, that’s what we’re bringing to Mexico. And we’re looking forward to doing that.”Regarding the possibility of PRIEST recording a live album in Mexico, Hill said: “Maybe. We’ll see. I mean, it’s just easy to do these days. And we take recording equipment with us all the time, and I think most of the nights are recorded. So you never know — if you do a live album, at least part of it might be from Mexico. [Laughs] So, we’ll see where it leads. But we’ve been doing that now for quite a few years. It is just good for posterity. We don’t keep it all, obviously — you can’t keep it all. But, yeah, we record most shows.””Invincible Shield” entered the U.K. chart at No. 2, just behind Ariana Grande’s “Eternal Sunshine”.Prior to “Invincible Shield”‘s arrival, PRIEST’s highest U.K. chart achievement was with 1980’s “British Steel”, which reached No. 4.PRIEST’s 2018 album “Firepower” entered the chart at No. 5.”Invincible Shield” was JUDAS PRIEST’s fifth Top 10 album, after the aforementioned “British Steel” and “Firepower”, as well as 2014’s “Redeemer Of Souls” (No. 6) and the 1979 live album “Unleashed In The East” (No. 10).”Invincible Shield” landed at No. 1 in Germany, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as No. 5 in France, No. 8 in Italy and No. 16 in Australia.JUDAS PRIEST will celebrate the 35th anniversary of its classic album “Painkiller” extensively live with the “Shield Of Pain” tour. This “rare” and “unique set” will include “beloved classics” and “will be defending the metal faith in a truly memorable experience throughout Europe” this summer, according to a social media post from PRIEST.[embedded content]
