Intervju - Rob Halford, Judas Priest / Halford Judas Priest tillhör det klassiska och legendariska gardet inom brittisk hårdrock. Bandet har funnits i mer än trettio år och är fortfarande verksamma. Rob Halford går sedan länge under namnet Metal God och även om det kan anses vara lite väl grandiost, så skriver nog de flesta under på det. Han hoppade av bandet 1992 för att satsa på en solokarriär, men återförenades med dem 2003 och gav ut albumet "Angel of retribution", följt av en uppskattad turné. Personligen har jag länge hoppats på att en dag få intervjua denne metall gud och när en förfrågan via mail dök upp från ingenstans, så nappade jag direkt. En timme efter utsatt tid den 30:e januari och efter att jag nästan gett upp hoppet, ringde då Rob Halford och ett mycket trevligt samtal följde. Självfallet blev det en hel del snack om hans senaste sololåtar, men givetvis även mycket om kommande konceptalbumet "Nostradamus", outgivet material och mycket annat. Här nere följer den exklusiva intervjun för Metal Shrine.se. RH: Hi Niclas, this is Rob Halford. Hi Rob, how are you? RH: I´m alright. I´m in San Diego in California. Right, so you´re in San Diego. But you live in Phoenix, right? RH: Eeehmmm, well...where do I live? I´m a rock and roll gypsy. I´m still a UK residence obviously, but yeah, I´ve got a nice place in Phoenix, Arizona and I´ve also got an apartment in San Diego in California. I´ve been here for the last few months working on the "Nostradamus" lyrics. Nice! RH: Where are you in Sweden? I´m in Stockholm. We have tons of snow and it´s a bit cold actually. RH:Well, it´s raining here. Oh, I thought it was sunny 24/7 in San Diego? RH: Yes, a lot of people do, but we have a winter period as well and that´s what we´re going through for the moment. Yeah, I love Stockholm! It´s a wonderful city and we´ve had great times there. What´s that venue that we played last time? The Globe. RH: The Globe yeah. That place was out of control. I was at that show. RH: You were! It was absolutely brilliant! It was. About the Metal God Entertainment? Is it a record company or...? RH: Yeah, it´s a strange name for a record company, but that´s what it is...Metal God Entertainment Records. When I was able to get all my stuff back from Sanctuary, I didn´t really quite know what to do with it, so I went to several different record labels and see if we could do a deal and I just came back with all the information and I thought...well, the robhalford.com site is such a massive success, that why don´t I just take this further now. Since the advent of legal downloading and just the way that the whole music industry´s been turned upside down with the Internet and music, why don´t I just do two things. First of all, create an online music store with Halford music and then just set up an actual record label to facilitate just another extension of the whole web based business. Really, it´s just a record company that´s not only for me. In the future and not too distant future, I would like to go into pretty much full time with working with other bands and letting bands utilise the enormous amount of traffic and hits we get daily at robhalford.com, to help them move ahead with their metal. Cool! Are you currently looking for bands to sign? RH: We´re setting all that up right now and we´re getting all of those pieces into place. The last thing we want to do is invite people to come and start a relationship and not be able to to do everything we need to do to look after a band. We might just keep it simple initially. We might just let everybody know of it, because that is such a well visited website and it´s a chance for bands that are getting lost on myspcae for example. Bands just get lost you know and they got to know where to go and so we´re just trying to think of ways to provide... because there are other opportunities out there for metal bands to be discovered, through the Internet and record labels, but I think because of the profile that I´ve provided, it might just be a way of helping new metal bands get a foot in the business. These two new songs, "Forgotten generation" and "Drop out"? I was watching the video for "Forgotten generation" on YouTube and there´s a lot of disturbing images with police violence and so forth, what´s the story behind those songs? RH: I talked forever about this. "How are we gonna do this?". "Are we gonna put on a band performance?"...you know, green screen, blue screen...and then I thought "Well, what are we gonna surround it with?". We tried different formats and I thought...basically the message in the song is my belief that everybody´s got a voice and everybody has an opportunity to say what they want and they DO, especially on blogs on the Internet. So it´s a very assertive song in that respect and I thought, well because of what I do with the Halford band it lets me kind of tackle kind of real life issues and social political issues if I want to go there and I have and I will in the future still. I don´t do that in Priest because Priest is a different metal animal, I just thought that all those things that go on in life, they are terrible and they are upsetting and they are disturbing, but I just wanted to focus on that area because I hadn´t done it before. I just wanted to stimulate people´s thinking more than anything else. Just go "Look at all this shit that´s going on!" and still going on. It´s horrible and it´s terrible and some people might say "Come on Rob, we get enough of that as it is!", but I don´t think you can push it under the carpet all the time. So I just wanted to put all those little clips together and make you sit and watch and think about it and have a reaction to it. It´s very important to react! That´s what rock and roll is all about, reacting! You either go "Living after midnight" and have a rock and roll party or you go a bit deeper and a bit more objective with the real message. I guess there´s another solo album coming eventually? RH: Eventually! Will these songs be on that album? RH: Eeeehmmm...I don´t really know. If they are they´ll probably be remixed or something. Actually I´ve got some cool things in the pipeline that Atti Bauw has done for me. You know, Atti did some amazing remixes on my Fight records, the Mutations releases and so if we do include them on the next Halford we just might reshape them. But we´re stock piling an enormous amount of material. Metal Mike´s in New Jersey and Ray Z is in Los Angeles, so they send media files all the time and they´re building the music, so when I get it I just sit down and listen to the music and I get my ideas from that and then Roy Z comes to my house with his Apple Mac G4 and we plug a microphone in and we do the vocals. It takes a couple of hours and then it´s done and I leave it to Roy to produce, mix and finish it up. Ok. But that must´ve opened up a lot of freedom for artists like yourself, the whole thing with Internet and being able to play something and record it and then e-mail it to the other guy who´s writing, and you can be anywhere in the world. RH: Yeah, you can! I could be in a hotel room and do it and that´s an enormous amount of freedom now. I mean, at the same time, depending on the circumstances, we prefer to work in the atmosphere, like we´re doing right now in the studio in England, working on "Nostradamus", that´s the best place for us to be. To work together in those conditions, we find that to be the most productive and it´s comfortable. But, yeah, it´s wonderful and I just embrace that whole explosion and revolution in the Internet and it has meant a lot to me as a musician and the world. The Internet is just a vital part of where the world is at right now. There´s no way to keep anything secret these days. It´s out there within minutes. RH: That´s a good thing even though some of it is disturbing. I was watching the news last night about Google in China letting the Chinese goverment censor the way that certain things go through, which I completely disagree with. But at the same time it is freedom of information and I think people being allowed to know what´s going on in every aspect of life that affects them directly, is important. And as you know with all the blogs that everybody does these days, everybody has an opportunity to speak out and voice their opinions whether they´re stupid or whatever and that´s important. The Internet is just as revolutionary as the invention of the radio or the telephone. Well, about the new Priest album "Nostradamus". Who came up with the idea of doing this album? Was it your idea? RH: It was our manager Bill and he came over to see us towards the end of the "Angel of retribution" tour last winter in Estonia and we just talked about what we´d be doing next. Our thinking was that we would go inte the studio and make a follow up studioa album to "Angel of retribution", which was such a massive success. But he presented this possibility and we just embraced it and thought "Oh God this is great!". First of all it´s a concept album, which the Priest have never done before. There are tons of Priest fans that have always been asking for it and then it´s the story of this real man. We´re dealing with reality and not fantasy. Nostradamus life was extraordinary and he´s a very controversial figure still 500 years later. All of the things that he went through in his life, the struggle and the conflict, is very much in the world of metal. So it was just a great idea, a great platform for making a concept album about a real person and the things that he went through and the prophecies that he made. The music is absolutely incredible, it´s just fabulous. Everything that you love about Priest is in this Nostradamus music, but it goes in further and into some areas that we´ve never done before. Had you read about him and his prophecies before you started working on the album? RH: Well, everybody in the band, when Bill brought his name up, everybody knew about him and the fascinating aspects of it. Because he´s a world reknown figure you go to Japan and people know about him and the American people know about him. That was the other prospect, that his life is still discussed all these years later and everybody around the world is aware of him and so it was with us. When Bill came up with the idea we went "God, this is great!" and this is just the perfect vehicle for us to approach and to put the music in the story of his life. I´ve read some of his stuff and it´s pretty much that you can read all kind of things into it, the same way as with the bible. Everyone has their opinion about what it means. RH: Well, that´s what I like about it It´s kind of a similarity to what we do in music, because for my job as a lyricist, a lot of my work is kind of, how can I say, you can interpret it in your own way. I can either write the lyrics out as just being factual, this is what it´s about, or it can be very kind of ambigious and kind of difficult to pin point. It´s like if I listen to songs by Maynard from Tool..."What the hell does he mean by that?", you know, and then I´ll say "Maynard, was this song about so and so?" and he´ll go "No!". And it´s like "Oh, I never thought about that.". And so it is with the prophecies of Nostradamus, I think regardless of how the interpretations are made, that´s what makes the subject matter, or interesting, because everybody has a different opinion and view on these prophecies he created. Some people go "It´s absolute rubbish!" and some people go "Oh my God, that really happened!" and "If that happened is this gonna happen?", the predictions he´s got for the next hundred years or whatever. So that´s important for the subject matter, to have that kind of edge and slightly controversial content. So how far have you come in the recording of the album? The structure of the songs, are they done and are you just working on the lyrics now or what? RH: Like any band you go through the difficult stage, which is sitting down, like Glen and Ken and myself did with guitars and keyboards and go "Ok, let´s start!", but "Where should we start?" (laughs). "What part of his life do we do first?" and I think, what we tried to do is actually go on a timeline from when he first discovered these abilities to prophecise and all the other things that he went through in his life. And so, that´s the initial challenge and the three of us put together very rudimentary demos fully in every aspect that we want to cover instruments and arrangements and construction and then really the joy that is to replicate those very rough demos to the fully, finished and final and musical pieces. And that´s what the guys are doing in England, doing all of that right now and I´ll be going over there shortly to lay all my vocal tracks down. Ok. Do you have any titles ready? RH: Titles? Of course I do and I´m not going to tell you (laughs), because everybody wants them. That´s great, because everybody´s like "I wonder what this song is about and will it be a fast song or a slow song, a ballad?", and that´s what I love. I was talking to somebody yesterday, a friend of mine who´s a radio host here in America, we were talking about the magic and the mystic of what we do in music and a lot of those elements have faded away. I said "I have to agree with you!" and that´s what we´ve always tried to do in Priest, is keep everybody wondering and thinking, so when the moment actually comes, it´s an exciting thing. It´s like having a christmas gift under the christmas tree and knowing what it is! That´s no good, is it? You don´t want to go crazy and rip the wrapping paper off to find out it´s a pair of slippers! (laughs). It will be a nice heavily incrusted leather diamond wristband or something. But I think it´s important that you keep a little bit of secrecy going on, it´s the passion, the passion that Priest fans have. Thy´re all excited and wondering and anticipating what this is gonna be about and it´s very tempting (laughs) to start shouting out lyrics and titles, but I can´t do that. But it´s wonderful and incredible music and I think that the Priest fans worldwide are gonna embrace it and have a wonderful time with it, especially when we play it live. Are you producing it yourselves or are you working with a producer? RH: Well, the initial stage is we´re basically looking after everything our selves and we´re gonna take it to different levels and feel if we need some kind of producer involved. We haven´t decided just yet, because we´re a long way from the finishing line, so to speak. Everything that we´ve done has been co-produced pretty much. We know what we´re about and what we need to do and at some point it is valuable to bring in another individual with a another objective point of view. That´s what good producers do. A producer will come in and go "Hey guys, this is great, but have you thought about doing this and trying this?" and if they´re a good producer the reaction is "Yeah, that´s pretty cool, we never thought about that!" and they take you to a place that you maybe didn´t think through or didn´t see. But at the moment we´re doing it ourselves and as when we feel it´s necessary to bring in production, we´ll do that. You haven´t started thinking about art work for the album then? RH: Yeah, all that´s going on and the stage design is going on. All of these things are going on around the actual studio evironment. How involved are you in that? RH: In every aspect. That´s just the way we are in Priest, because at the end of the day we don´t want to have something happen and be uncomfortable with it, because we didn´t say something or speak up or dind´t have any input whatever. Everything that comes from Priest in every aspect, comes from the input of all of us in the band and all of us agreeing that this is the right thing to do. I read somewhere that you´re planning on playing the whole album live. Any truth in that? RH: Yeah, we will do that. The same kind of thing that Iron Maiden did? RH: Yeah, that´s what Maiden´s just done and I think that´s gonna be another core moment, because we´ve never done that ourselves. We kind of put that out in the press release, while we were writing the record and we wanted people to know that that´s what our intentions are gonna be and then of course when Maiden came out they went into that world as well and it´s proved really successful for them. It´ll be a full performance front to back with a very elaborate and theatrical stage show and again, that´s something new for us and for our fans around the world. Cool! About some old stuff now. Are there a lot of unreleased Priest material? On the remasterd albums you released stuff, but is there more stuff lying around that might eventually some day see the light of day? RH: Yeah, it´s quite possible. Since we reunited we have a lot of material that hasn´t surfaced yet. Everything that we´ve ever done we have released and when we did the box set and the remasters, we found some stuff that was previously unreleased. We just thought that was an important additive to the remastering experience. For the most part, as writers Glen and KK and myself, we pretty much use everything that we need to use. The stuff that doesn´t make it is either not to the standard to be, because we set very high goals for ourselves, or there´s just no space for it, no room for it. But I´m sure in the future there will be moments that we´ll share and let people enjoy. Right on! I was wondering about the bands you were in before Judas Priest? Was anything recorded? RH: I wish I had, I wish I had! It was a couple of three different outfits and our music was very very cool, but that was before video and portable casette players or digital recording. So no, but I sometimes think about that and that´s a really cool question to ask. But I don´t have anything and I don´t know that there´s anything from the past that was recorded and that´s kind of unfortunate. Because I mean, in those bands, we had no money! We were just broke! We didn´t have any money to record a record or to bring in anybody that could put it down in a recording sense, unfortunately. I´ve always wondered about the stuff you allegedly recorded with Stock/Aitken/Waterman in 88-89. Was it just a rumour or did you really record with them? RH: We did!We went over to Paris and we did some work with them and I don´t know how that came about actually. I think it came out of my head. Just thought it would be an interesting experiment to see what might happen by that collaboration. We were together for a couple of days, I think it was. It was fun and there was some interesting things that took place. Were they cover songs? I read that you did "You keep me hangin´on" by The Supremes. Is that true? RH: Eeehmm, did we do that song? I can´t remember what we did quite honestly. It was original stuff, most of it was. We did two or three or four songs. My mind is gone blank! I have to do some research and find out what happened with all that. That would be really cool to hear! RH: It would be, wouldn´t it? I don´t know if the people at Waterman still got all that stuff, but yeah, it´s like any opportunity that you think might be cool to kind of venture into. You just don´t know what´s gonna happen. You face eachother and you start generating ideas and being creative and see where it takes you. Ok, some final things. I was watching Youtube and found these two really cool "Turbo" commercials, where you were in like a... RH: Oh God...in a suit! Like an American Express commercial? Yeah! Was that a record label idea or...? RH: Yeah, it was the record label´s idea. Just being creative, trying to think in different ways that could get attraction to that time when we were working on different projects. Yeah, it was a lot of fun! I saw it actually for the first time a couple of three weeks ago, somebody sent me an e-mail and I was like "Oh my God!" looking at these twenty years later in San Diego. It was just a mind trip. So funny and on that level, if you don´t have a sense of humour in rock and roll and metal, you might as well forget it. You gotta be able to have a good time and have some fun. That must´ve been your first acting experience? RH: I think it was! But I don´t think I was that good. It was just a fun thing to do to promote the record. Finally! I know that you stepped in for Ronnie James Dio and Ozzy in Black Sabbath when they were not available. And now Heaven and Hell is going out on tour... RH: I can´t wait to hear them. A friend of mine, Eddie Trunk, he was in England recently with Toni and Ronnie and, you know, everyone´s sworn to secrecy, but he said that the music is fantastic. Absolutely brilliant! So I´m thrilled that they´re going back out together again. Would you step in if Dio jumps ship? RH: (laughs) You´re the first person to ask me that. Ronnie´s just unbelievable and he´s a fantastic singer. I don´t think that moment will ever happen quite frankly. It´s a fun question to ask. I can´t wait to hear the music and hopefully get to see them perform live together. Cool! Final question! When you toured Sweden in 2000, you were playing in the southern part of Sweden, at a club in Malmö and friend of mine, our webmaster, he met you at the hotel and you asked him if he could drive you to the club. Do you remember any of that? RH: Yeah, I remember that! Well, that made his whole year. RH: Did it really! (laughs) A simple little thing like that. Well, I probably needed a ride and I don´t care how I get there. He was happy to drive you. RH: Well, that´s very nice! (laughs) It´s actually my birthday today, so being able to talk to you is the perfect gift. RH: Happy birthday! Wonderful! It´s very nice of you to say that. I hope I´ll be seeing you very very soon. I don´t think we´re doing any live shows this year, but we´ll be coming back to Sweden because we have such a massive fanbase there. We´ll see you when we come there next time and have a drink, ok! Absolutely Rob! Thanks a lot! RH: Thank you and bye bye! Judas Priest - Official website Halford - Official website

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