Glenn Tipton

Glenn Tipton is the guitarist who gave Judas Priest its written shape. Born in Blackheath, in the West Midlands, he joined the band in 1974, when the group already existed but was still looking for its identity, and formed with K.K. Downing the twin-guitar partnership that would become the template copied by all the heavy metal that followed: two lead players in harmony, trading phrases rather than one backing the other. Within that pair, Tipton is the structural side. His phrasing is more melodic and more planned, and a large part of the band's classic repertoire came from his pen — the riff design of "Painkiller", the dark architecture of "Beyond the Realms of Death", the concision of British Steel (1980). He is also the member who most often took on the role of the group's informal producer, deciding what made it onto a record and what did not. In 1997 he released the solo album Baptizm of Fire, with guest appearances by Robert Trujillo and Cozy Powell. In 2018 he revealed publicly that he had been living with Parkinson's disease for around ten years, and stepped back from full tours — Andy Sneap took over guitar duties live. Tipton nonetheless remains a member of Judas Priest, continues to write and record, and takes the stage at chosen moments, keeping his presence in a band he helped define across half a century.