According to a recent interview on Metal Pilgrim, Rob Halford confirmed that Andy Sneap will play with the band on stage on the upcoming tour, since Glenn Tipton can play live.
“Andy is still standing in that spot for Glenn with Glenn’s blessing… It’s pretty much a given (that he will be going out on tour with us again). And my gratitude to Andy. It couldn’t have happened in a better way, if you wanna try and make something good out of it. It was a really important day when Glenn said, ‘I think it’s probably best if I step to the side and maybe we should let Andy come in.’ That was just a really beautiful act of selflessness. That’s Glenn treasuring Priest and Priest’s reputation, particularly in live concert more than anything else. So bless Glenn for that. And as a result, Andy stepped in and did amazing work on the ‘Firepower’ tour, and we’re looking forward to doing the same thing with him on this 50th-anniversary [tour]. And don’t discount the fact that Glenn can show up. He plays the guitar differently, but there’s no reason why Glenn can’t show up and do some work. I mean, I’ve said to Glenn, ‘Just walk out on stage and do that to everybody [flashes devil horns], and the people will just go fucking crazy, ’cause you are loved so much.’ But I’ve got a feeling that Glenn’s gonna be making the occasional appearance on this 50th-anniversary.”
He also said that Judas Priest have written new material for a studio album with Glenn Tipton. “I remember that February 2020 at Glenn’s studio was incredible. I love the start of any process of making a record, because anything can happen. We’ve always said, with Priest, is that we never really have an agenda or have an idea. The closest we got to that philosophy was the ‘Firepower’ album. We really wanted to focus on the classic elements of Priest, and I think we got the job done. So this next one will have its own legs, like they all do, its own character. Yeah, just talking now, I can hear the songs in my head, and they’re great. You think you can only go so far, but this proves that that’s a disputed idea. You can go as far as you wanna go, as long as you’re channeling all the proper ingredients, and the proper ingredients of Priest have always been the energy of metal, the power of metal, the endless opportunities. And all of that is embedded in the fact that myself and Richie Faulkner and Glenn are still as hungry for writing new Priest material as we ever were. Particularly Glenn and myself have been doing it forever, but since Richie’s been with us, even more so. Richie’s like this endless well of riffs and ideas. It’s just, like, ‘Oh my God. We need to stop now. We need to digest everything that you’ve just played us.”
