ROB HALFORD On Singing Live: 'The Physical Challenges Of Getting Old Have Come Into Play'

Blogcritics magazine conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST vocalist Rob Halford on December 5, 2008. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Blogcritics: It's been quite a year for you, with the release of the new JUDAS PRIEST album ("Nostradamus"),the ensuing tour, even the FIGHT "War of Words" film did pretty good. So how do you feel about all that?

Halford: Well, just over the moon. It's been a really sensational year, and to get the two Grammy nominations like we did 48 hours ago, it's like the icing on the cake…. That was just, out of the blue to get two Grammy nods. The year has been a very powerful one, a very fulfilling one.

Blogcritics: I was going to bring that up. You never know what type of metal they're listening to over there at the Academy, but congratulations on the Grammy nods definitely.

Halford: Thank you very much, yeah. I've been a Grammy voting member myself for many, many years. Really. And the crazy thing is, because I was probably in some obscure part of Europe when all the voting was going on, and my mailing thing just got slightly screwed up, I never saw the fact that PRIEST was on the list on the initial ballot. So it was a complete surprise to me. It was just amazing and absolutely overwhelming…

Blogcritics: A friend of mine brought up to me that you were thinking of releasing the "Voyeurs" demos from your TWO project. Is this correct?

Halford: Yes. The bigger goal of that is to try and get the actual music that I did with Trent Reznor… and get that back somehow because then I'd like to provide the fans with both sides of what TWO was about at that point musically. There was the demos and [they] were all practically completed. But we shifted gear and worked with Trent and Ray Riendeau [bass]. Most people are only aware of the final outcome of that collaboration. So we just got to get through all the legal business stuff.

A lot of people are talking about that as I've been chatting to friends around the world about this "Rio" DVD [from the HALFORD band]. Everybody’s remembering and thinking about the TWO record. And I think that's very cool because you put some of those tracks on now and they just click into Active Rock radio and Top 40. And that just shows you the foresight that Trent had as a musician and as a producer. You can really feel Trent's influence on songs like "I Am A Pig". He's just ahead of the game in music to a certain extent…. But yeah, I think it would be useful if the demand was there… we'll do it.

Blogcritics: How did JUDAS PRIEST decide to get involved in the videogame Rock Band and decide to be one of the first bands in April (of 2008) to have its record, "Screaming For Vengeance"available to download through the system?

Halford: It's a Sony thing. They're behind all of that. I mean of all the people they could pick and choose within that catalog, we were absolutely thrilled they chose PRIEST and "Screaming For Vengeance". … and the same with Guitar Hero. … So yeah, it's really cool to be in that world, [though] I'm rubbish when I try to play video games.

Blogcritics: Your voice has held up amazingly well after all these years. What challenges do you at this point in your life face as a singer? And how would you compare your singing ability now as opposed to 10-20 years ago?

Halford: It's different obviously; the physical challenges of getting old have come into play. Having said that, I listen to what I did on "Nostradamus" and I feel pretty good about it all. Robert Plant said recently, "I wish to Christ I hadn't screamed my tits off in those early days of LED ZEPPELIN. People want me to do it now, 40 years later and I can't do it." That's just a fact of life, you know. See, when you're putting on a show, you just have to make the subtle adjustments to get through the music. But it's all doable. I don't worry about it that much. I can still cover a lot of territory.

Read the entire interview from Blogcritics.

Fan-filmed video footage of JUDAS PRIEST performing the song "Painkiller" live on August 12, 2008 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada can be viewed below.