JUDAS PRIEST's ROB HALFORD On 'Firepower': 'We Had So Much Fun Making This Record'

JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford was interviewed on the March 30 - April 1 edition of Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show. You can now listen to the chat using the Podbean widget below.

Asked if it becomes a challenge for him and his bandmates to make new music that sounds like PRIEST's vintage material without repeating themselves, Halford said: "I think where we're at now, we've gained all this tremendous metal knowledge and wisdom that we've been having in PRIEST for as long as I can remember. So, that's really substantial — what I'm trying to get at is that that's really substantial. And so, internally, you know where you've gotta go. Getting to the place, that is the challenge — definitely. Making sure that you don't bump up against anything, making sure that what you're aiming for has the clarity and the distinction and the characteristics that kind of separate itself from what has happened previously.

"When we began writing the music [for PRIEST's new album, 'Firepower'] — Glenn [Tipton, guitar], Richie [Faulkner, guitar] and myself — we set ourselves that simple task of, you know like all bands do, 'This is gonna be the greatest PRIEST classic heavy metal album of all time.' And you've gotta say that to yourself, because that's your motivation," he said. "And then you wrap all that up with the joy and the pleasure and the thrill and the gratitude of still being here all this time later, and then you get to work.

"We had so much fun making this record," Halford added. "Some of it was effortless. That might sound a bit pompous, but I think with Richie's embedment in the band particularly, he really shone through in his contribution. And you wrap all that up with Glenn's great work and myself — so there's a team of writers in place — and then, wow, suddenly you've got [produer] Tom Allom and then you've got [co-producer] Andy Sneap and [engineer] Mark Exeter, it's just great. And those early days of production were tremendously exciting."

Halford was also asked how much of "Firepower" was specifically designated to play live. He said: "Well, here is the thing: for the first time in a long time, we were all in the studio together laying the tracks down. You know, the normal procedure is you get your anchor down with your drum work, and there is maybe somebody alongside doing rhythm or whatever, but Andy was very adamant in making sure that PRIEST played live on this record, and you can sense that. You know, the little nuances that you get when you're playing live together — there's a little bit of push and pull in the music, just apart from the human performance, is very apparent in 'Firepower'. So, as a result of that, we can take anything from the record and play it live. In fact, we've just come out of rehearsals in the U.K., as we've kicked off this tour, and it's been another challenge. How much time have we got to play, and how many songs can we put in the set? We've gotta do those classics that our PRIEST fans wanna hear and we still love to play, but it's so important for us to play the new music as well. So, the setlist was a bit of a challenging endeavor, but we found a balance, and this is a great display of PRIEST through the decades, including the relevance of the band in 2018."

"Firepower" was released on March 9 via Epic.

The North American leg of the "Firepower" tour kicked off on March 13 in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and will wrap on May 1 in San Antonio, Texas.

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