JUDAS PRIEST Singer: 'Metal Has No Age Limit'

November 24, 2011

Joanne Huffa of NowToronto.com recently conducted an interview with vocalist Rob Halford of British heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

NowToronto.com: I remember when there was a distinct line drawn between metal fans and punk fans, but bands like PRIEST and MOTRHEAD were the rarities that it was cool to like regardless of the length of your hair. To what do you attribute your widespread appeal (for lack of a better word, your cool)?

Halford: From the start, we wanted to put on a show that fans would remember by the looks as well as the sounds. So we invented the leather studs, whips and chains that married perfectly with our music. Times change the looks of bands. We had ours from the mid-'70s on and have played around with it here and there, but stayed true to ourselves.

NowToronto.com: Metal seems a lot more diverse today than it did in the past. Has your audience changed in the past 15 years?

Halford: We have grown old together, but every show we play now covers just about all kinds of demographic: from heavy metal kids barely in their teens to guys and gals from our time of life. Metal has no age limit. Never will.

NowToronto.com: I'm guessing you haven't lived in England for a long time, but I'm wondering if growing up in Birmingham with its juxtaposition of industrialism and nature influenced your music. Do you think there's something about that area that inspired bands to play heavier, faster or louder than others?

Halford: We count our blessings that we came about as we did at an exciting time of musical development. Many people say PRIEST was at the beginning of the scene, which is true. Metal comes from electric prog blues rock and we refined all of that into how we sounded. We guess it's the same for all bands as far as where you come from gets into your music. We lived and breathed the metal of the foundries and factories, so maybe that is in our blood.

Read the entire interview from NowToronto.com.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).