During a conversation with Q103, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford talked about the power of music to break barriers, the band’s latest album “Firepower,”:
You have broken so many barriers with heavy metal, even from fashion, from wearing leather and studs, and breaking barriers, it’s not easy. Did you ever second-guess yourself or did you always just fit?
“It’s a wonderful subject, this whole business of breaking barriers and tearing down walls. A lot of wall language going down in America.
“You know what walls do? Walls divide people, walls create a barrier of silence, and the great thing that music has always been able to do is to break through walls.
“Music is about communication, music is about talking with each other through the songs, through the shows that we go to.
“When metal maniacs come together, have a few drinks or hang out in the parking lot, I know they talk about stuff other than music, that’s a natural human thing, so this is a great thing about the power of heavy metal as a music source, to break through any kind of issues, hate, intolerance, prejudice on any level.
“Metal maniacs have this great capacity to love each other and help each other, get through difficult times together, so this is a glorious thing about the life of being a metal maniac. The fact that there are millions of us around the world doing great things with the music that we love…”
nd music, it’s amazing in that way and it brings people together, and certainly, there’s a fan connection, but creating an album is also a process in itself. What do you connect with more? Creating the album or live music?
“You know, I think that the live music is a validation of what you went through the process of writing the songs from scratch. It’s still incredibly exciting.
“I was hanging out with Glenn [Tipton, guitar] yesterday and just talking about what we might be doing next with Priest – there’s always the thrill of that next song, you know, and then the one after that, and one after that.
“That’s where it starts with Priest, you know, it’s the metalworks factory of what we do, a band making songs from the raw source of our love for making metal together. And then you carry it through, once our fans are getting what we’ve made, you’ve got to validate that by playing it live from the stage.”
“‘Firepower,’ I just finished listening to it – so much energy, it’s really a classic heavy metal sound with that driving guitar, the vocals. I’m just wondering, what fans are going to expect to see from the show? Any surprises?
“You know, it really is a celebration of a lot of things. All of our metal maniacs know that Priests always deliver the goods, as we say.
“In actual fact, there’s one song that we brought back in the set for the first time in a long time. This band has been making metal for so many years I lose track, but we got all the way back to rock ‘n’ roll through to where we are at now with ‘Firepower.’
“So we’re kind of picking our way through the decades and pulling out some songs that maybe you’ve never heard before or we’ve never played before live.”
Your career has been almost five decades, and you certainly had a lot of accolades with Judas Priest – Grammy’s, the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame nomination… How do you define success as a rockstar?
“Well, I think, firstly, none of us in Priest are really elevating to that kind thinking, you know, the ‘rock star’ thing.
“It’s a beautiful thing to be called and we cherish that kind of language whatever it might be, but what I’m trying to say is that it’s all about this kind of self-empowerment and determination.
“If you’re lucky enough to find something that you do in life that gives you such incredible pleasure and you’re able to share it and spread the gospel of metal like we do with Priest – we inspire each other, so many musicians recognize Judas Priest as being one of the bands that acted as a springboard into their own particular careers – so there’s a lot of things that makes Judas Priest very, very special.”