- Nov 24, 2002
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Hailing from Birmingham, England, the same polluted industrial shit-hole in the West Midlands known for black lung and Black Sabbath, Judas Priest have been fucking legends for thirty years now. But how many times will we have to play British Steel back to back with Sad Wings of Destiny before we can close our eyes and pretend the Ripper years never happened? Decibel called up Priest vocalist Rob Halford, who seems no worse for wear after spending twelve years recording ill-conceived solo projects (Two, Fight), coming out of the closet, and discovering that the cast of Heavy Metal Parking Lot wasnt all that surprised. Rather than talk about Priests shiny new live DVD, Rising in the East (its pointless if youre already got Electric Eye), we grilled him on communism, his short-lived porno career and going bald. As it turns out, our man is both funny ha-ha and funny queer.
Priest is going to Russia. Are you psyched?
Halford: I am, yeah. I was up til three oclock this morning speaking with the Russians, actually. Theres about an eight- or nine-hour time difference between my place in Phoenix and places like Moscow and Kiev and such. Its always a thrill to go to a place for the first time, but I was born in the 50s, you know, so I have some very dark memories of Russia from the Cold War experience. I remember going to West Berlin with Priest before the Wall came down, and looking over into East Berlin was always a kind of thoughtful moment. So to be going there now, ten years after the Soviet federation broke apart into the Baltic States and so forthits going to be great.
I dont know if youve heard the news, but Heavy Metal Parking Lot is finally coming out on DVD.
I did, yeah! Someone told me about that a while back. Im excited to know that its going to do the rounds again. It really is a microcosm of not just Priest, but heavy metal in general. If you put the same camera crew outside a Priest show today, youd get the same kind of intensity. It really hasnt changed. Thats a remarkable bit of social documentary on heavy metal.
I was channel-surfing the other day, and I saw you behind the counter at the jack shack in Spun. How did you end up doing that?
[Laughs] I dont know if that was a case of life imitating art or art imitating life. The shop we shot that scene in was in a sleazy area of Santa Monica Boulevard, and Mickey Rourke goes, Yeah, manI used to get my skin mags from here. I said, You kidding me? I used to work at a porno shop in England before I joined Priest. And we ended up looking at each other in disbelief.
Did you know [director] Jonas Åkerlund when he played drums for Bathory?
No, I just got a call out of the blue. For some reason, when he saw the script he thought, Oh, porno shopthats gotta be Rob Halford. When I went to Hollywood to meet him and told him the same thing I told Mickey, he was gobsmacked.
Do you have any good stories from your days behind the counter in the real porno shop?
[Laughs] You know its a funny old world, the porno business, isnt it? Its just like going to Target or K-Mart, really. You go in, you know what you want, you ask for it, you get it and you leave.
Tell me about the day you decided to shave your head.
I dont think anybodys ever asked me that one. [Laughs] You know, this is so bizarre because I had a dream last night that I had really, really long hair! I think it was because I watched a Madonna video before I went to bed. It mustve started me thinking about follicles again. I was dreaming about having massive amounts of hair and all the crazy things you can do with it. But, anyway, what happened was that it was rapidly receding and kind of going off in its own directionand the last thing I wanted to do was become a Hair Club for Men member. By the time we got to Painkiller, I was already into the as-shortly-cropped-as-possible mode, so really, I think it was by 93 or 94 that the lot went off. I think I started a bit of a fashion trend, because lots of metal singers have bald pates now.
How old is too old to be playing metal?
Weve got an agreement in the band. We dont really talk about it, but I think if we had the notion it was all over for whatever reason, thatd be the end of it. Its also a matter of going onstage and being able to deliver the goods. If ever a moment came that we felt that was diminishing, wed seriously consider the consequences. But if you start thinking that way, you start winding downand thats the last thing you can afford to do to yourself. Were just gonna let time take its coursewell know. Youll never see us on our third farewell tour of the world or something.
Do you ever read what people are saying about Priest on the message boards?
Well, it depends on the mood. I have to say in all honesty that 99.9 percent of the time I dont, because Im a very emotional person and if I see something that pisses me off, Ill rattle off a response. And I dont believe in giving people the power to do that to me, so for the most part, I just let people be stupid if they need to be stupid. You know, weve got a page up on myspace.com, and its amusing to see what people are sayingtheres always that please-get-a-life person, but you just let those things go.
Is there any Priest song you wish would just go away?
[Laughs] Well, you know, everything has been released to the fans with the endorsement of everybody in the band. So I dont know. I dont think theres anything from the past that I tend to flinch and grimace at. None of us really listen to our back cataloguewere all in the mindset of doing what needs to be done now. But I dont think theres anything where I thought, Oh, did we lose our minds or something?even though some songs were written on, eh, certain chemicals. But that was years agoI dont take anything stronger than a cup of Earl Grey nowadays. Still, its amazing how incredible something sounds when youre stinking drunk, but in the morning it sounds like absolute shit.
Priest is going to Russia. Are you psyched?
Halford: I am, yeah. I was up til three oclock this morning speaking with the Russians, actually. Theres about an eight- or nine-hour time difference between my place in Phoenix and places like Moscow and Kiev and such. Its always a thrill to go to a place for the first time, but I was born in the 50s, you know, so I have some very dark memories of Russia from the Cold War experience. I remember going to West Berlin with Priest before the Wall came down, and looking over into East Berlin was always a kind of thoughtful moment. So to be going there now, ten years after the Soviet federation broke apart into the Baltic States and so forthits going to be great.
I dont know if youve heard the news, but Heavy Metal Parking Lot is finally coming out on DVD.
I did, yeah! Someone told me about that a while back. Im excited to know that its going to do the rounds again. It really is a microcosm of not just Priest, but heavy metal in general. If you put the same camera crew outside a Priest show today, youd get the same kind of intensity. It really hasnt changed. Thats a remarkable bit of social documentary on heavy metal.
I was channel-surfing the other day, and I saw you behind the counter at the jack shack in Spun. How did you end up doing that?
[Laughs] I dont know if that was a case of life imitating art or art imitating life. The shop we shot that scene in was in a sleazy area of Santa Monica Boulevard, and Mickey Rourke goes, Yeah, manI used to get my skin mags from here. I said, You kidding me? I used to work at a porno shop in England before I joined Priest. And we ended up looking at each other in disbelief.
Did you know [director] Jonas Åkerlund when he played drums for Bathory?
No, I just got a call out of the blue. For some reason, when he saw the script he thought, Oh, porno shopthats gotta be Rob Halford. When I went to Hollywood to meet him and told him the same thing I told Mickey, he was gobsmacked.
Do you have any good stories from your days behind the counter in the real porno shop?
[Laughs] You know its a funny old world, the porno business, isnt it? Its just like going to Target or K-Mart, really. You go in, you know what you want, you ask for it, you get it and you leave.
Tell me about the day you decided to shave your head.
I dont think anybodys ever asked me that one. [Laughs] You know, this is so bizarre because I had a dream last night that I had really, really long hair! I think it was because I watched a Madonna video before I went to bed. It mustve started me thinking about follicles again. I was dreaming about having massive amounts of hair and all the crazy things you can do with it. But, anyway, what happened was that it was rapidly receding and kind of going off in its own directionand the last thing I wanted to do was become a Hair Club for Men member. By the time we got to Painkiller, I was already into the as-shortly-cropped-as-possible mode, so really, I think it was by 93 or 94 that the lot went off. I think I started a bit of a fashion trend, because lots of metal singers have bald pates now.
How old is too old to be playing metal?
Weve got an agreement in the band. We dont really talk about it, but I think if we had the notion it was all over for whatever reason, thatd be the end of it. Its also a matter of going onstage and being able to deliver the goods. If ever a moment came that we felt that was diminishing, wed seriously consider the consequences. But if you start thinking that way, you start winding downand thats the last thing you can afford to do to yourself. Were just gonna let time take its coursewell know. Youll never see us on our third farewell tour of the world or something.
Do you ever read what people are saying about Priest on the message boards?
Well, it depends on the mood. I have to say in all honesty that 99.9 percent of the time I dont, because Im a very emotional person and if I see something that pisses me off, Ill rattle off a response. And I dont believe in giving people the power to do that to me, so for the most part, I just let people be stupid if they need to be stupid. You know, weve got a page up on myspace.com, and its amusing to see what people are sayingtheres always that please-get-a-life person, but you just let those things go.
Is there any Priest song you wish would just go away?
[Laughs] Well, you know, everything has been released to the fans with the endorsement of everybody in the band. So I dont know. I dont think theres anything from the past that I tend to flinch and grimace at. None of us really listen to our back cataloguewere all in the mindset of doing what needs to be done now. But I dont think theres anything where I thought, Oh, did we lose our minds or something?even though some songs were written on, eh, certain chemicals. But that was years agoI dont take anything stronger than a cup of Earl Grey nowadays. Still, its amazing how incredible something sounds when youre stinking drunk, but in the morning it sounds like absolute shit.
