ROB HALFORD: 'When I Get Back To My Own Bed, That's A Vacation'

Darryl Sterdan of the QMI Agency recently conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST frontman Rob Halford. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Q: Do you never go on vacation?

Halford: When I get back to my own bed, that's a vacation. But in all honestly, I can't remember the last time I took a vacation. It's probably been 30 years since I got on a plane, went to a beach and just laid there. That doesn't interest me. I mean, I've had the great luxury of seeing some of the most beautiful places around the world. It's not all hotels and stages and airports. But yeah, for me, if I do have the occasional week off, it's just nice to have the world stop rolling for a few hours.

Q: I understand you play guitar, but you never play onstage. How good are you?

Halford: I am absolute rubbish. I'm like a clown with a guitar. I'm not that rubbish that I can't write songs and get riffs down. I'm able to do that. But I don't want to be a guitar player onstage. I just want to be a singer. And I don't have the biggest attention span. So I couldn't sit there and put this finger on this note and this other finger on that note. It would drive me nuts.

Q: When your band is named HALFORD, don't people expect you to play PRIEST songs? How do you walk the tightrope between giving them what they want without being a PRIEST tribute band?

Halford: That's a really important question. It's very important to me not to be a tribute to myself. But you do try to find a balance. So we're doing "Green Manalishi With the Two-Pronged Crown" and "Diamonds and Rust", which are PRIEST songs but are covers. And we've put "Jawbreaker" in the set. But I will not do "Breaking the Law". I will not do "Living After Midnight". I will not do "Painkiller" or any of the other famous JUDAS PRIEST songs. That would be insulting.

Q: What's next after this tour?

Halford: It's back to PRIEST. I'm going home to the U.K. for Christmas and I'll be seeing Glen (Tipton) and (K.K. Downing). We've already got some good ideas. We've got multiple choices — we could do another anniversary tour like we did with "British Steel", since "Painkiller" just turned 20. And we've got some things up our sleeves that we'll let everybody know about before the end of the year. But there's a guarantee of more PRIEST on the way, and I think that's what the fans want to hear. And personally, I can't wait to get back to PRIEST-land and start tearing it up.

Read the entire interview at QMI Agency.