Glenn Tipton joined Judas Priest for the encores of two shows last weekend at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California on Saturday (March 12) and the Zappos Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada on Sunday (March 13).
Having previously suggested that Tipton would join the band for select dates on their ongoing 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour, frontman Rob Halford brought Tipton out to roaring crowds on both dates to play through Metal Gods, Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight.
Tipton stepped back from touring duties with Judas Priest in 2018 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but remains hellbent on not letting the condition stop him from playing. Watch as he blazes through three Priest classics, and serves up the solo in Living After Midnight, in the footage below.
Despite taking a step back from official touring duties, Tipton is set to play guitar on the next Judas Priest album, Halford confirmed late last year.
“He can play, so he'll be on this next album,” Halford told Spain's Mariskal Rock. “Whatever work he does, he's valuable – really important.”
“He's a member of Judas Priest,” the frontman continued. “He's still there. He's still an important component of this band and what this band represents, particularly in the writing sense. He made a massive contribution to the songs that we have so far. And we'll still keep writing – we'll still keep putting together the ideas. Because you can never stop writing.”
"So, yeah, he's good, man," Halford added. "He's still a fighter. He never lets anything stop him. He's a great force for people that are living their lives actively and productively with Parkinson's. So he's still very much [like] that No Surrender song – a heavy metal hero."
Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner appears to be back into the swing of things, too, after suffering an aortic aneurysm onstage with the band at Louder Than Life in September last year.
In a remarkable recovery following the incident, Faulkner was shredding on Instagram Live just 10 weeks afterwards, and back in December, he revealed he was back in the studio recording a guest solo for Demon Hunter's next album.
Priest's full-time guitar tandem is currently completed by Andy Sneap, who produced their 2018 album Firepower, and has filled in for Tipton ever since. Back in January, the band announced that they would go forth touring without Sneap, but following fan backlash, his place in the group's touring lineup was reinstated.
The band's setlist was the same in both Oakland and Las Vegas. Check it out below.
- One Shot at Glory
- Lightning Strike
- You've Got Another Thing Comin'
- Freewheel Burning
- Turbo Lover
- Hell Patrol
- The Sentinel
- A Touch of Evil
- Rocka Rolla
- Victim of Changes
- Desert Plains
- Blood Red Skies
- Diamonds & Rust (Joan Baez cover)
- Painkiller
- Electric Eye
- Hell Bent for Leather
- Metal Gods
- Breaking the Law
- Living After Midnight
Judas Priest's 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour continues tomorrow (March 15) at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.
