JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Glenn Tipton told Greg Prato of Billboard.com that the band will reconvene next month to begin writing the follow-up to 2005's "Angel of Retribution", which was the band's first album with singer Rob Halford since 1990's "Painkiller".

"We've had a break — we've been out for almost two years," Tipton said. "We all decided to take January off, and then we're going to start writing the new album in February. We are doing a charity show for the Teenage Cancer Trust at [London's] Albert Hall in April, and we are talking about some summer festivals [in Europe]. But our main priority is to write the next JUDAS PRIEST album — that'll be the number one thing on our agenda."

Regarding the upcoming reissue of his 1997 solo album "Baptizm of Fire" and the release of a collection of recordings made with THE WHO bassist John Entwistle and veteran session drummer Cozy Powell, Tipton said, "At the time I was with Atlantic, and in their words, they thought [the Entwistle/Powell recordings were] 'a bit old-school. They wanted me to work with some younger guys, and mix and match the tracks. I went to L.A. and worked with some young guys," including ex-DAVID LEE ROTH bassist Billy Sheehan and METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo.

"A really great album came out of it, but what it did was leave all these other tracks that I'd done with John and Cozy," Tipton said. "I always knew that Cozy was a great drummer, but I never realized what good a bass player John was, until he came down to the studio and started to play. I always felt that these tracks were valuable tracks, and deserved to see the light of day."

Read the entire interview at Billboard.com.