GLENN TIPTON JOINS JUDAS PRIEST ON STAGE IN NEW JERSEY
21st March 2018
Glenn Tipton joined Judas Priest on stage this Tuesday night, March 20th, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and performed a three-song encore of 'Metal Gods', 'Breaking The Law' and 'Living After Midnight'. Here's some fan-filmed video footage of Glenn's appearance.
Glenn also took part in a signing session with his bandmates at the Sony Square NYC in New York City and recently thanked Priest fans for their messages of support in the five weeks since he announced that he was not taking part in the 'Firepower' tour due to his battle with Parkinson's disease. Glenn did play on the 'Firepower' album and was replaced on tour by Andy Sneap, who produced the album.
"I have been overwhelmed by the massive support and love I've had from other artists and from fans all over the world and from many friends and Metal maniacs out there. It's not the end for me — I'll still be able to write and record and on good days even join the band on stage for a few songs."
Priest bassist Ian Hill told CBS SF that the subject of Glenn not playing on the 'Firepower' tour didn't come up until after the recording sessions for the album were completed.
"That's the whole point," he said. "It's a terrible condition. Glenn's great for about ten minutes. He'll stand up there and he'll play through a song. Which is great from an album point of view. He rarely has to play longer than that if he does a song from start to finish. The longest song on the album is only seven minutes. That sort of thing he can handle, and, of course, he's sitting down on a stool.
"But if you put him on a stage and he to stand up there for the better part of two hours, that wasn't really realistic. We were hoping it was going to happen. We went through a similar scenario the last tour. We all knew then he was having his problems. So we started rehearsals and he was rough, no doubt about it. But as we went on through the week, he got better every day. And by the end of the rehearsals, he was ready to go.
"And he put in awesome performances on the last tour. So we were expecting — or at least hoping — that would happen again. But into the second week of rehearsals, it was quite obvious to everybody it wasn't going to happen this time around. It was... an achingly painful thing to him to do; to admit to us and the rest of the world — and to himself mainly — that his body wasn't going to let him do what he loved to do above all else anymore, you know? I mean, we were all upset when he came out and said it.
"The hairs on the back of my neck are sticking up now just talking about it! It's a cataclysmic thing to happen to someone. And Andy just happened to be in the recording studio. He brought some effect tapes down that he'd put together for us for the new album. And just said, 'You know, maybe Andy would be able to do it'. So he asked him, and after he picked is jaw up off the floor [laughs], he agreed to give it a go."
'Firepower' was released on March 9th and entered the UK album chart at number five.
'Firepower' tracklisting:
1. Firepower 2. Lightning Strike 3. Evil Never Dies 4. Never The Heroes 5. Necromancer 6. Children Of The Sun 7. Guardians 8. Rising From Ruins 9. Flame Thrower 10. Spectre 11. Traitors Gate 12. No Surrender 13. Lone Wolf 14. Sea Of Red
'Firepower' was featured in MetalTalk's album review show, You Spin Me Round', and you can hear what Johnny Churchill thought about it, as well as hearing selected tracks from the album, right here:
Remaining tour dates:
22nd March: Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena 25th March: Ottawa, ON The Arena at TD Place 27th March: London, ON Budweiser Gardens 28th March: Oshawa, ON Tribute Communities Centre 30th March: Orillia, ON Casino Rama 31th March: Detroit, MI Detroit Masonic Temple 3rd April: Milwaukee, WI Riverside Theater 5th April: Green Bay, WI Resch Center 8th April: Bloomington, IL Grossinger Motors Arena 10th April: Casper, WY Casper Events Center 11th April: Loveland, CO Budweiser Events Center 15th April: Kent, WA ShoWare Center 17th April: Portland, OR Veterans Memorial Coliseum 19th April: San Francisco The Warfield 22nd April: Los Angeles, CA Microsoft Theater 24th April: Phoenix, AZ Comerica Theatre 26th April: Tulsa, OK BOK Center 28th April: Dallas, TX The Bomb Factory 29th April: Sugarland, TX Smart Financial Centre 1st May: San Antonio, TX Freeman Coliseum
Priest have already been announced for both Wacken and Bloodstock festivals for 2018. The Metal icons are one of the most-requested bands by the Bloodstock's loyal fan base and have been hot favourites to play Catton Park for some years now. They will finally make their Bloodstock debut on Friday night, 10th August 2018.
The band commented when their Bloodstock appearance was announced:
"Judas Priest are thrilled, honoured and primed, ready to unleash Priest-style Metal fury into the headbanging heart and home of Heavy Metal at Bloodstock 2018!"
Gojira were previously announced as Saturday night headliners and Nightwish as Sunday headliners.
Tickets for Bloodstock 2018 at great prices (early bird offers at just £125 for four days of Metal fun) are currently available right here.
Priest join Helloween, Nightwish, Running Wild, Dimmu Borgir, In Extremo, Arch Enemy, Vince Neil, Children Of Bodom, Dirkschneider, Doro, Sepultura, Amorphis, Epica, Amaranthe, Knorkator, Belphegor, Watain, Firewind, Deserted Fear, Bannkreis at Wacken 2018 with many, many more acts still to be announced.
Tickets and travel packages for Wacken 2018 are on sale now right here.