Otep guitarist Rob Patterson will join the band on tour, but not on stage.

In a bizarre announcement this week, Korn frontman Jonathan Davis has revealed Otep guitarist Rob Patterson will fill in for departed bandmember Brian ‘Head’ Welch, but not be joining the band on stage.

Welch quit the metal act in February to dedicate his life to Christianity[read: Korn guitarist quits, taking religious journey].

In a statement on his official site, Davis said the band were not ready to share the stage with an unfamiliar musician, despite Welch departing over six months ago, but did not want to use tape samples:

“So yes we hired Rob Patterson to play guitar for the European dates but he will not be on stage we dont want to use samples or tape cause that would suck we are not ready to have a new guy on stage with us.

”This is for the first Europe run only we have some new exciting ideas on how we are gonna play live in the future and I am sure it will blow your mind,“ he added. ”Mixing is going great 13 songs done and they sound f*cking amazing.“

Patterson has previously toured with Vanilla Ice.

Brian ”Head" Welch, meanwhile, is continuing his Christian work, revealing last month his plans to travel to India to help homeless children