In the early '80s, Judas Priest took a young Iron Maiden out on the road in North America as their support act. The two bands would ultimately become undisputed metal legends and two of the biggest bands in the genre, making a joint tour something to salivate over. Priest bassist Ian Hill is calling for it to happen again while both the bands' members are still alive.

"There’s always the big question of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. That would be really interesting if we could get that together before some of us die," Hill, Priest's lone remaining founding member, told Audio Ink Radio. "It’d be great! You run into these people over the years. We’ve played with quite a few of them, but we’ve got to get together with Iron Maiden."

The first time Iron Maiden toured with Judas Priest was in the U.K. in 1980. They had just released their self-titled album and Priest were promoting their breakthrough record British Steel. One year later, Maiden made their North American live debut on the back of Judas Priest, who had again brought the band along for support, this time on the "World Wide Blitz" tour as they promoted their 1981 record Point of Entry and Maiden had just released Killers.

For now, Judas Priest are continuing to tour behind last year's Firepower album, while Iron Maiden will be embarking on the North American leg of their theatric "Legacy of the Beast" tour later this year.

The Firepower tour is the first to not feature guitarist Glenn Tipton each night. He stepped away from his live role in the band due to a decade-plus long battle with Parkinson's Disease. Producer Andy Sneap has stepped into the guitar spot, but how long he will remain in this position is unknown, even to him.

"I'm just filling in, really. They asked me to help out, so it was a case of jumping in and doing what I could do," Sneap told The Void With Christina. "I'd had a year in the studio with them — I was doing Accept and Saxon at the same time — so it's been good for me to step away from the studio, because mentally, I was getting a little bit burnt with that, if I'm honest. To be able to step back and still do something this size and musical has been great. Where it's going to go? I've got no idea. We haven't even discussed it. It's been, 'Andy, can you do this tour? Can you help us out here?' That's fine."