39 Facts About Glenn Tipton

Glenn Raymond Tipton was born on 25 October 1947 and is an English guitarist.

Glenn Tipton is the second longest-serving member of the band, after bassist Ian Hill.

Glenn Tipton was born on 25 October 1947, in Blackheath, Staffordshire, to Olive and Doug Glenn Tipton.

Glenn Tipton attended Olive Hill Primary School when he was about five years old.

Glenn Tipton's brother, Gary, was a guitar player for a local band called the Atlantics.

Early on, Glenn Tipton was taught to play the piano by his mother.

Glenn Tipton learned to play guitar at age 19 with his first guitar being a Hofner acoustic guitar.

Glenn Tipton soon bought a black Stratocaster and, later, a Gibson SG Special afterwards with money he received to replace his stolen guitar.

Glenn Tipton can be seen playing both of these guitars during Judas Priest's appearance on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1975.

In May 1974, Glenn Tipton joined Judas Priest, and coincidentally Scrannage had joined the band Bullion with earlier Judas Priest members Ernest Chataway and Bruno Staphenhill.

Glenn Tipton frequently played keyboards on the early albums, although those were no longer featured on any songs after Killing Machine.

Glenn Tipton is credited with introducing a more metal sound to the band with those songs, as Rocka Rolla was composed of largely blues rock and psychedelic songs left over from the band's former frontman Al Atkins.

Glenn Tipton's first solo effort was the album Baptizm of Fire, which was released in 1997, followed by Edge of the World in 2006, which was a project from the sessions for Baptizm of Fire released under the name Tipton, Entwistle and Powell in tribute to John Entwistle and Cozy Powell who contributed to the initial sessions.

On 12 February 2018, Glenn Tipton announced that he would step down from touring when he revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Glenn Tipton stated that he was still a member of the band despite his diagnosis and would not rule out future on-stage appearances.

Glenn Tipton has two children, Karina and Rick, both of whom played on his solo album Baptizm of Fire.

On 12 February 2018, Glenn Tipton revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, with which he was first diagnosed in 2008, thus ceasing his duties to perform on tour as the disease's progression left him unable to play the more challenging material.

Rob Halford said that Glenn Tipton rejected the idea of having to be assisted with an additional guitarist backstage on tour for cover on some of his guitar parts or to use backing tracks.

Glenn Tipton then said that he witnessed first-hand the struggles Tipton experienced during the making of Firepower.

Bassist Ian Hill explained that Glenn Tipton faced a similar situation during rehearsals for the Redeemer of Souls Tour in 2014.

At the time of the announcement, he said that Glenn Tipton made the decision to step off the stage due to his health, which caused emotional heartache for the band.

Glenn Tipton explains that the foundation would help raise money in hopes of finding a cure for Parkinson's disease.

Glenn Tipton says that a new "pioneering treatment" from his personal specialist would help treat other sufferers of the disease.

Hill said that the band had known for some time that Glenn Tipton was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease before his announcement, again recalling the difficulties during the first days of the Redeemer of Souls Tour, but improved as time progressed.

Glenn Tipton joined Judas Priest in the Power Trip show on October 7 2023.

Glenn Tipton was more than a genius in my eyes, someone very, very special.

Glenn Tipton is a big fan of soundtrack music, something that is evident in listening to Judas Priest's metal opera Nostradamus.

Glenn Tipton used SGs and a Stratocaster with two DiMarzio Super Distortion humbuckers as his main instruments until the mid 80s when he started using various Hamer guitars including some signature models, which were used almost exclusively in live performances until 2009 when the Stratocaster and one of the SGs was brought out of retirement for the British Steel 30th anniversary tour.

Glenn Tipton uses standard-light gauge strings produced by Ernie Ball and thin picks.

Glenn Tipton still uses this guitar model, but now with Seymour Duncan Blackouts active pickups.

In 2009, Glenn Tipton took his Fender Stratocaster and Gibson SG Special out of retirement for the British Steel 30th Anniversary tour.

Glenn Tipton has almost exclusively used Marshall Amplifiers for live performances.

Glenn Tipton used 50 and 100 watt Marshall heads without a master volume until 1981, when the JCM 800 head was developed.

Glenn Tipton dropped this endorsement during the 2004 reunion tour for live performances switching to a large rack unit with multiple preamps and effects processors with a Marshall 9100 power amp.

Glenn Tipton uses for his home studio in England the generation 1: Crate Blue Voodoo BV 120H all tube, all American head with the blue tolex.

Around the time of the reunion with Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton only used a modified Crybaby 535Q Wah, Digitech Tone Driver, DigiTech Main Squeeze, and a Yamaha midi board controlling other effects and sounds in a rack unit.

Since the beginning of the 2008 world tour, Glenn Tipton has gone back to mostly using a rack system, sans the current use of Engl amp heads.

Glenn Tipton currently uses a Korg rack tuner, Furman power unit, Dunlop Custom Shop Rackmounted Crybaby, Rocktron Intellifex and Yamaha SPX-90 multi-effects units, and a dbx 166A compressor and noise gate.

See the Judas Priest discography for the complete list of Judas Priest albums, as Glenn Tipton played guitar for all Priest's album releases.