In a new interview conducted by Billboard, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford addressed their decision to tour as a quartet.
Here’s what he said:
That all came from me, it didn’t come from the band. Of course, that blew up in my face, didn’t it? To have done something like a four-piece now would’ve been just not right, ridiculous, insane, crazy, off my rocker, have a cup of tea, and relax. It’s kind of water under the bridge now. I think my heart was in the right place, but I’m not the first musician to have a crazy idea.
Earlier, in a recent conversation with SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk“, Saxon’s Biff Byford was asked what he thinks of Judas Priest’s decision to tour as a quartet.
Here’s what the singer said:
“Yeah, I was talking to Andy about it. Andy lives quite close to where I live, so we talk all the time. Yeah, he was really disappointed ’cause he loves Priest. Andy is a child of the ’80s, really, so he loves Priest.
”But he didn’t take it too badly; he was just really disappointed. And then, a week later, he was back in. It was, like, ‘Yeah!’ [Laughs]”
Byford added more:
“I don’t know. Maybe they’d been drinking. I don’t know. Maybe they were having a party in the room once and somebody said, ‘Hey, that doesn’t sound bad with one guitar.’ Sometimes these things are like that. One guy says one thing. Maybe some engineer was in there saying, ‘Have you heard this?’
“I don’t know why. I thought it was a little bit crazy when I heard it. I was, like, ‘Really?’ [Laughs] It’s crazy. It’s like Thin Lizzy having one guitarist. It’s impossible.”