Judas Priest singer Rob Halford has interpreted recent remarks from ex-guitarist K.K. Downing to mean Downing believes guitarist Glenn Tipton didn't actually play all the parts he's credited with on the group's new Firepower LP — and Halford isn't having any of it.

As previously reported, Downing recently weighed in on the news of Tipton's touring retirement and Parkinson's diagnosis by admitting he was "shocked and stunned" not to have been invited to return to the lineup. While praising Tipton's live replacement, Firepower producer Andy Sneap, Downing wrote, "I have no doubt that his contribution to the new Judas Priest album was much more than just as a producer."

As you can hear below, Halford took issue with what he sees as a veiled allegation that Sneap's secretly responsible for Tipton's Firepower parts. While insisting he's proud that the band have "never gone into this kind of arena of a public dispute," he dismissed much of what Downing had to say as "completely superfluous" — and added that he'd personally watched Tipton record his parts.

"I can categorically state that that is a thousand percent false. Because I was with Glenn for all of his guitar work, and he worked really, really hard," said Halford. "Imagine this guy in the 10th year of Parkinson's. I've never seen anybody so brave in the fact that every song was a challenge for him to make it work, but he did — consistently, day after day. It was just a very powerful thing to experience firsthand. And this just goes to show you about the amazing stories that surround individuals around the world that are dealing with Parkinson's in their life."

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