Judas Priest is one of the most revered heavy metal bands in history long known for their twin guitar approach to popular songs like “Living After Midnight,” “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming,” “Breaking The Law,” “Electric Eye,” “Painkiller,” and many more. But the band will look a little different on its upcoming tour, as the group decided to return to the road as “an even more powerful, relentless four-piece heavy metal band.”
Former touring guitarist and band co-producer Andy Sneap is among those not happy with the decision. “Rob (Halford) called me last Monday and said they wanted to move on as a four-piece, which I find incredibly disappointing after this amount of time but I respect his decision as they obviously have a vision how they want this to play out,” Sneap said. “This always was a temporary situation, and like I’ve said before, I’ll always help the band any way I can, and that applies going forward also. I’ve been a huge fan of the band since the early ’80s and it was mind-blowing to play onstage with the guys and quite frankly terrifying in the beginning at such short notice. We are moving forward with the new album next month and look forward to making a killer follow-up to ‘Firepower.’”
SiriusXM DJ and rock ambassador Eddie Trunk is also puzzled with the decision. “Impossible to comprehend how one of the defining 2 guitar metal bands of all time are going to celebrate their catalog, all built on 2 guitars, with one. Richie is great. But nobody can figure this one out.” he tweeted.
Priest’s full statement reads as follows: “Hello maniacs! We are chomping at the British Steel bit to return to world touring… celebrating 50 years of Judas Priest as an an even more powerful, relentless four piece heavy metal band – with Glenn coming out onstage with us here and there as before. Big thanks to Andy for all you’ve done and continuing to be in the production team for our new album… See you all soon headbangers!” Late last year, Priest announced a rescheduled “50 Heavy Metal Years” North American Tour for March and April with openers Queensryche.
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