JUDAS PRIEST Singer: 'Metal Is Unique Just Because Of Its Power, Its Volume'

Patrick Douglas of the Great Falls Tribune recently conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

On his new release "Metal Gods Essentials":

"It's like a little door to the four CDs if you wanna go further and investigate those four releases. It's not only for the Halford/PRIEST fans in the world, it's for people that may or may not know of my solo experiences and just wanna check this out."

"What I wanted to do was just to keep that side of me alive. My solo activities, my adventures with different musicians, are as important to me as they ever were. 'Metal Gods Essentials: Vol. 1' is just a bit of an overview of some of the highlights."

"We've tried to mix it up 'cause normally an essentials release is like your greatest hits. This is not that by any stretch of the imagination. This is a very unusual collection of songs from two bands, HALFORD and FIGHT. It's only to present something that was different to the norm and it's turned out really well."

On his early days with JUDAS PRIEST:

"That first record that we ever made was just one of the best days I can ever remember. To actually get that piece of vinyl through the post, we were given one copy each by the record company. To actually pick that up and look at it and hold it and think 'oh, my god, I've made a record,' that was a tremendous moment."

On rejoining JUDAS PRIEST in 2003:

"I was yearning for that. A part of me was hoping that dream would become a reality. It's like when you get back to the house and you open the door and you see those familiar faces, it's the best feeling in the world. Especially when you consider the great times that you had over your two decades together. It just feels great. PRIEST is like a family."

On his love for rock and roll and metal:

"It just makes me feel alive. It really does. Metal is unique just because of its power, its volume. It's an aggression. It's a spectacular thing to listen to or to go see live. There's just something primordial about it. You look at the mosh pit and it looks extremely violent and it's not really. It's just very tribal."

"If you don't like metal, if you don't understand metal, you'll never get it. You just won't grasp it. It's very difficult to convert somebody into metal if they don't understand what it means."

On the upcoming JUDAS PRIEST album based on the prophet Nostradamus:

"(He's) a real man, not like a fantasy that you get in rock and roll and metal. (We're) telling the story of this very controversial human being from 500 years ago, from France, who still resonates all these years later. It's a human story as well as one that you know about from his premonitions."

"We're really pushing ourselves again. It would be very easy for Priest to stop recording music and just keep going out and doing shows, but that's not what we're about. The music is absolutely phenomenal. It's everything that you love about PRIEST and more 'cause we really stretched ourselves and we're doing some extraordinary things musically."