Judas Priest, with long time guitarist Glenn Tipton are currently on the United States leg of their latest world tour. Classic Rock Revisited recently caught up with Tipton and asked him some questions about the band's future.

When asked if this is the "last ever" Judas Priest tour, Tipton replied,

"It is the end of the huge world tour. If a string of dates makes sense, and it was offered to us, then we would consider it. We’ve definitely got at least one, maybe two, albums left in us. It is not the end of the band by any means; it’s just our last tour of the planet."

And, in reply to a question about the newest bandmate, guitarist Richie Faulkner,

"That is the amazing thing; Richie has just blown us all away. Last November, Ken told us that he wanted to retire because he had problems with his wrist. We thought that was it, really. We didn’t do anything for three months. We knew that there were a lot of kids that wanted to see Priest play, one last time. We decided to do it, if we could find the right guy. We found Richie and he just blew us away. He blended straight into the band. He has the essence of what’s necessary for Priest and he does his own thing as well; he really is extraordinary. I have said it before, but I think if we had not found him, then we wouldn’t be on the road now."

And on recent songwriting with Rob Halford,

"Rob and I did some writing in January and February. We have actually done eight to ten songs. We’d like to sit down with Richie, as he has already presented a few ideas that are very Priest-like. That is a whole new option that we want to pursue. The thing that we need more than anything else is time. We have a very heavy touring schedule and then we will need to rest a bit before we get back in the studio."

The US leg of the Epitaph tour runs through December 3rd, 2011 and will kick off again in Japan in early 2012.