HALFORD: 'I Need To Be Able To Go To Ralphs And Push My Shopping Cart Up And Down The Aisles'

George Varga of SignOnSanDiego.com recently conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST frontman Rob Halford. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On his Hillcrest, California apartment near Balboa Park, where he goes virtually unnoticed:

"If I couldn't do that, I think I'd move somewhere else. I don't want to be a recluse, but I need to be able to do what I want to do without being 'paparazzi-ed' to death. I need to be able to go to Ralphs and push my shopping cart up and down the aisles. I've never been attracted to the rock star persona. It's great if people want to think about the fantasy of what a rock star's life is like, but I don't want that. . . Maybe it's my working-class roots. But it's important I'm able to do my Ralphs and Ichibans (restaurant visits)."

On performing the "British Steel" album in its entirety at each concert on the current tour:

"All I remember about making 'British Steel' is that we had a contractual commitment to the record company to deliver the album on time. We'd just come out of a mixing session (in the studio) at John Lennon's former residence (at Tittenhurst Park),where Ringo (Starr) was living. We asked if we could write and record the album there, and Ringo said: 'Go ahead, do it.'

"The bulk of 'British Steel' was written in that house. We didn't have time to think. We were literally writing all day and night, and putting those ideas together as quickly as possible. ... Dare I say, it was the album that brought the band to a national level in America."

On feeling reconnected with "British Steel" as a whole after nearly a month of performing the album live at shows:

"I was finding my way around it. Now, I'm immersed in it and it's an amazing feeling. When you listen to the opening line of the first track, 'Rapid Fire' — 'Pounding the world like a battering ram' — that just resonates in 2009. The power of the music and the message in the lyrics absolutely still connects."

On thriving as the only openly gay member of a major metal band:

"I thought that whole Proposition 8 (anti-gay-marriage) thing was a crock. Because we were hijacked by the religious fanatics, again. Why is marriage, by definition, a religious experience? I don't think it is. It's a contract between two people who love each other and want to show the world how they feel about each other."

On the future:

"If I lost my voice, it would be pointless. Fortunately, my voice is still doing the business, so I don't even think of retirement. Once you do, you start to decompress, and you can't do that in rock 'n' roll. You have to keep the fires burning.

"I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do drugs. All I've got is my metal and I'm happy with it."