ROB HALFORD: 'I Don't Think A Straight Man Can Do My Job In JUDAS PRIEST'

Mike Daniel of The Dallas Morning News recently conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

On how he believes that he's the only man capable of fronting JUDAS PRIEST:

"To be brutally honest, 'Jugulator' and 'Demolition' [the two PRIEST albums made with Tim 'Ripper' Owens as frontman] were affected by my not being in the band, much like when Bruce Dickinson went away from IRON MAIDEN, the way VAN HALEN [was] affected when David Lee Roth left. But I don't think a straight man can do my job in JUDAS PRIEST. I've never said that before. I'm sorry, but they can't."

On "Nostradamus" being a drastic shift that sounds like no other PRIEST record:

"We don't replicate ourselves. If you want 'British Steel', go and play it; if you want 'Painkiller', go and play it. We don't want to keep making the same thing over and over again, with a different song title and different words. What's the point? I've always felt that if you wanted to compare us to anybody, compare us to QUEEN ... God what a band that was. They were so heavy. I see a lot of that in PRIEST."

On upcoming world tour that will focus on "Nostradamus":

"I want to go over the top with all of it, but that's me. I love to go onto the stage with the big set and costumes and lights. We all do that in the band, but I know what my role is, and I love to get lost in that theatrical, flamboyant style. That's what makes me click as a metal guy. I could see Cirque du Soleil doing it, I can see Broadway doing it, I can see a movie with Johnny Depp playing Nostradamus doing it, I can see a full classical opera interpretation, I can see a full symphonic classical presentation. I see everything in this record."

Rob Halford performing with JUDAS PRIEST on June 13, 2008 at the Download festival at Donington Park, Leicestershire, UK (photo uploaded by Flickr user "MrJolly"):