After it became evident that Glenn Tipton could not be 100% in the shows, Rob Halford said that Judas Priest suggested to the guitarist that he could still participate in the tour of the new album, “Firepower”, and for this it would be enough to resort to resources like counting with an extra hidden guitarist or even pre-recorded parts, suggestions that were completely rejected by Glenn.
Read what he said:
“We were rehearsing lately and realized that it was very difficult for him, we started to wonder if he could go on tour, and then we thought of some kind of backing guitar or pre-recorded tapes, so we made the proposal for him. Glenn is a purist and did not want any kind of assistance to play live”.
“Then when he decided not to do the tour he said: ‘I want to do what is best for the band, not what is best for me.I do not want to go on tour with Priest because I’m going to jeopardize the band’s performance. “What he did was a terrible interpretation of the maxim that says” the show should go on. “We told him: ‘Glenn, it’s not about the band, it’s about you. but it remained irreducible: ‘No, no, no, it has to be for the band, and the best thing to do for the band is for me to go away and find some friend to take my place”.
Halford reiterates that in spite of the difficulties, Tipton played all his parts in the album “Firepower”:
“It was very, very difficult, he could only play a few minutes or seconds.” It was captured and, in a stroke of magic, the pieces Glenn played, his performance is real, he never gave up, he never said ‘I can not do this.’ He went to the studio every day believing that he would be able to record And as difficult as it may have been, he succeeded in his determination and personality. ”