JUDAS PRIEST Re-Masters On The Way, HALFORD Speaks Out

The third and final phase of the JUDAS PRIEST re-masters is scheduled to be released in early March (March 4th in Germany). There will be only two unreleased studio songs on them—"All Fired Up" (Turbo) and "Living Bad Dreams" (Painkiller)—30-seconds sound excerpts in Real Audio of which can be heard at this and this location. The complete list of bonus tracks for the next wave of re-masters is as follows:

Turbo:
All Fired Up (previously unreleased)
Locked In (previously unreleased, live)

Priest...Live! :
Screaming For Vengeance (previously unreleased, live)
Rock Hard, Ride Free (previously unreleased, live)
Hell Bent For Leather (previously unreleased, live)

Ram It Down:
Night Comes Down (previously unreleased, live)
Bloodstone (previously unreleased, live)

Painkiller:
Living Bad Dreams (previously unreleased)
Leather Rebel (previously unreleased, live)

In related news, former JUDAS PRIEST and current HALFORD frontman Rob Halford recently conducted a chat via the official HALFORD web site in which he mentioned several interesting things regarding his past and future. Here are some of the highlights of the chat:

On past and present musical influences:
“As always, I listen to a ton of stuff from all my classic metal faves like PRIEST, MAIDEN, DIO, ZEP, through EMPEROR, SLAYER, PANTERA… [The list is] endless. Like today coming to the studio, I jammed EMPEROR to the max!!”

On writing his autobiography:
“I'm hoping to put the metal god book together at some point soon. My manager Rod Smallwood was here in the studio the other day and we discussed it again.”

On favorite classical composers:
“I love the heavy stuff like Wagner, but the melody of Puccini and the math-like construction of Mozart is amazing. Like good classic rock, classical music lives forever.”

On new HALFORD album's sound:
“I'd say this is the best metal album I've ever made as far as it being a major step forward in the growth of the band the songs are way more complex and more interesting from many angles. The album is dynamically different than anything I've done before. It'll take all of you a bit of time to figure out the dynamics.”

On leaving JUDAS PRIEST:
“At that time I was just burnt out and needed to break free and explore new things musically. As I've said many times, I never intended to leave PRIEST, but sadly it went that way.”

On plans to release the 1982 Memphis JUDAS PRIEST show and HALFORD 2001 Rock In Rio performance on DVD:
“I haven't heard anything about a DVD of [the Memphis PRIEST] show. It would be cool to see it in that format. I have the VHS myself and it's awesome. As far as [the] [HALFORD DVD of the] Rio [performance is concerned], we are working on it.”

On favorite movie and/or book, and plans for after retiring from the stage:
“Favorite movie: Black Hawk Down. Book: Mervyn Peak's Trilogy. No plans to retire [from the stage].”

On plans to settle down with a “significant other”:
“[I am] single and free as a bird.”

(source: Exciter)