Lead guitarist doesn't know the chords?

Well yes, I'd have thought so but I'm not familiar with the band. Does he just play endless solos over the top of the rest of the band? Don't you band work on the structure of the songs, getting them tight and making sure everyone knows what they're doing before adding solos?

If he's never been called upon know the chords or to play them he's not going to know them "by magic".

Do you mean he doesn't know how to play chords or that he doesn't know the chords to a particular song? They are two different things. A guitarist that doesn't know how to play chords at all is half a guitarist.

B.B. King once told Bono that he couldn't play chords. Bono stated that it was no problem, they could get Edge to do it. He's the lead, not the rhythm, he may not know the chords because he never had to learn them.

not really, lead guitarists mostly only play lead and scales.

look at jimi Hendrix for example, he rarely played full barre major chords, instead he played partial notes out of the chords.

and mostly used the pentatonic scale to solo from, lead guitarists barely ever play chords, maybe suspended chords but not full chords.

That is completely unacceptable! ...Call the cops, it's illegal not knowing those chords! 😠

Yea, thats not acceptable. He should learn both guitar parts if he truely is a "lead" guitarist

Everybody works differently, particularly in the arts.