HALFORD: 'Every Generation That We've Experienced Has Been Very Inspirational To JUDAS PRIEST'

Yes! Weekly recently conducted an interview with vocalist Rob Halford of British heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Yes! Weekly: Since this isn't the end of touring for PRIEST altogether, but what will you do with the time off of the road that you will have?

Rob Halford: Knowing us, we'll be slaving away making more metal. That's just one side of JUDAS PRIEST, that we all still get tremendous pleasure out of writing heavy metal music. It's not only a great source of joy, but it's still a challenge obviously because you can start the day with nothing and end the day with a piece of metal that will live longer than you will. That's always exciting to contemplate. So we're not really slowing down all that much, we're just doing things on a different timetable. This world tour is the last one, but that doesn't mean to say that we'll be in heavy metal rocking chairs for six months of the year.

Yes! Weekly: Where do the influences on the new music arrive from? Do you pay attention to new offshoots of metal?

Rob Halford: We've always acknowledged that it's very foolish if you're in a band and you don't turn your radar on. It's very easy to kind of get lost in your on world and that's a great thing to do but every generation that we've experienced has been very inspirational to JUDAS PRIEST. We listen to all kinds of metal. You keep your eyes and ears open. The trail that we've left is very diverse. We've been all over the play with our metal, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that we've tried to be very aware of what's going on all around us in the metal world.

Yes! Weekly: In an ideal world, [original JUDAS PRIEST guitarist] K.K. Downing would be finishing the final world tour with the band, but how was it to assimilate Richie Faulkner?

Rob Halford: Firstly, he's a consummate professional musician. He stepped up to the plate and just melted it. He's just a stellar performer and brought a new dimension to the band. That's not to say anything bad about K.K., because these are the songs that him and myself brought together. But Richie has brought this tremendous energy and we're excited about where that is going to take us on the new record. We can't wait to get him in the studio.

Yes! Weekly: Will K.K.'s playing be heard on the new record at all?

Rob Halford: Of course, we had written the bulk of the material before we ever found Richie and we've got such a strong connection there that I think it would be foolish to ignore what Richie can bring. He's got this portable studio and he's already shared some of his ideas with us. We've always written from the heart, and having said that, we all agree that the next one needs to be a classic British heavy metal album because that's where we came from. The bulk of what we have now is very, very strong stuff in that regard.

Read the entire interview at Yes! Weekly.