ROB HALFORD: When I Come Off Stage, I'm No Longer The Same Person That Was On Stage

Jesse Capps of Rock Confidential recently conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST/HALFORD frontman Rob Halford. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Rock Confidential: I have to tell you — I've always noticed with your releases that you make sure the fans have quality products to keep them happy.

Halford: Thank you. I'm glad you recognize that. I really appreciate that. Most of my friends around the world, like yourself, rarely pick up on that point. Jesse, to me the launch of Metal God Entertainment was a chance to display what we're about. We've had a very successful run of reissuing the FIGHT and HALFORD stuff and we're focusing on the launch of Metal God Apparel and the Metal God record label. The philosophy behind that is to do the best we can and make sure when you give us your money that you get something decent back.

Rock Confidential: The attention to detail is something that excites me. It doesn't have to even be a celebrity such as yourself, but when someone builds a brand on their name and takes the pride to make sure it delivers on all fronts — that means a lot to me.

Halford: I don't take all of the credit for that and I never would. I'm surrounded by very talented people that have a lot of energy and have the same passion that I do. We all connect so the final result is tremendous.

Rock Confidential: Are you as hands-on as it appears with each piece of product you release?

Halford: I don't count for every bit of what happens. I'm there as a conduit. I'm constantly in touch with designers — primarily Mark Sasso, who works on all of the designs for Metal God Apparel. My manager, John Baxter, who runs the day-to-day operations of Metal God Entertainment through his company EMAS. Chip Ruggieri is my main guy for PR and all things associated with my solo activity. The final stamp of approval has to come from me. I'm always there in the mix.

Rock Confidential: Let's talk about the clothing line. How did you know Metal God Apparel was something you wanted to pursue? How did you develop ideas for the designs?

Halford: When I opened my closet door everything in there was black! Black t-shirts, black pants, black boots. I love black because it's heavy metal, but let's try to lighten it up a tad. The fun of merchandise with PRIEST or my solo endeavours has always been being involved in the creation of those items. This is just an extension of that, really. How far can we go? What can we do next? How can we take the Metal God brand and put it into some kind of clothing experiment? The tried and trusted tshirt was the first way to move forward. These first 13 or so designs are the first run. We're going to branch out into a more comprehensive display for the Magic convention in Vegas next year. We'll hopefully have about 30 designs by then. Beyond that we're pretty optimistic about where else we might go. We're still new. We've got a long way to go yet. The first launch has been very well received. I'm grateful to everybody that's taking to it and enjoying it.

Rock Confidential: I'm sure you feel different before you go on stage. You have to feel like a different being when you're getting ready to go on stage to a massive crowd.

Halford: I do. It's bizarre. I was thinking about this the other night. I came off stage in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago and I'd just played to 15,000 Japanese metalheads. I was laying in bed at two in the morning thinking about what I did and it was like another person was doing it. It's like going outside of my body and looking at myself! It's great and I love it. You're going out there and you're living something. It's live and it's a different world. When I come off stage, shower, change, eat and go back to the hotel — I'm no longer the same person that was on stage. You really have to work hard to be able to seperate those things. Some people can't do that. I need to be able to push my shopping cart around Ralph's and get the milk, bread and juice! I learned how to do that years ago and I have a wonderful life.

Read the entire interview at Rock Confidential.