Judas Priest reverse decision to tour as four piece

Band lineup will remain unchanged

Judas Priest has reversed its decision to tour as a four piece during their upcoming The 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour 2022. Earlier this week, the band had stated it would be performing without touring guitarist Andy Sneap, marking the first time in history the metal heads would perform as a four piece.

Today (Sat, Jan 15th), the band has reversed that decision due to backlash regarding those plans, after always having been a dual guitar band.

“[G]iven all that has recently evolved and transpired, we have decided unanimously as a band to continue our live shows unchanged with Rob, Ian, Richie, Scott, Andy and Glenn joining us whenever he’s able,” the band says in a statement. “So see you all soon as we forge ahead celebrating 50 massive heavy metal years of Judas Priest together!”

Sneap, who began touring in place of Glenn Tipton four years ago after Tipton stepped aside due to Parkinson’s disease, says he wasn’t initially involved in the band’s decision to tour without him, but would still be producing their next album.

“Rob 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,” Snead tells Blabbermouth.

“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.”

The 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour 2022 kicks off March 4th in Peoria, IL with dates through April 13th in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Queensryche will support the 25 date trek.

Priest also has plans to embark on No More Tours 2 with Ozzy Osbourne in 2023.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com