K.K. Downing was asked on Eddie Trunk's SiriusXM show what he made of Ian Hill retiring from Judas Priest with immediate effect, and the answer went where anybody who has followed this for the last decade knew it would go.
"It has been a very, very long time for everyone, and obviously if you do have some certain issues with your health, then you have to succumb when you get the call," Downing said. "Ian had, it was a long, good career, and very successful career."
Then the other half. "Obviously, it's a bit awkward for me because it's a pity that Ian didn't accept me back in the band a few years ago," he said, meaning the point at which Glenn Tipton stopped touring and the band chose Andy Sneap instead. "I would be there now, even though he isn't."
That sentence is the whole of it: the founding guitarist pointing out that the last founding member to leave was among those who kept him out, and that the seat he wanted is now empty anyway. He closed it politely enough. "I wish him well, and all the best for the future."