They are obviously retiring because they've become senile because the way it works is, you record an album then you go on tour and support it. I'm sick of bands re-releasing old material in a new package and calling it "new." Then they announce a farewell tour to rob their fans of any final cash they can get.
I'm with those fans that think the last years of Priest have been their worst. I'd go back and say the last good priest album was Painkiller, everything since then is either horribly bad especially the Owens albums or just ok (A.O.R).
It's probably just as well because I had already made up my mind that if they recorded another death metal album that I wasn't going to buy it or go to the concert, BTW I didn’t buy Nostradamus. Priest was my favorite band since 1978 when I first heard Green Manalishi, but towards the end of their career it was obvious that the direction they went in left me behind. I don't think it's Halford because I like his solo stuff, so I think it's probably Glenn and K.K. making the decisions in this band. I'm not going to the farewell tour because I've pretty much lost interest in them years ago, but it's sad for me because I'd always hoped that they would come full circle and write more classic stuff and go out that way. But this just proves that Judas Priest left me behind and in the end they were not my favorite band... | 
