Redeemer of Souls: Rob Halford talks Judas Priest's heavy metal legacy
The metal god speaks!
Over 40 years ago, Judas Priest burst from the West Midlands and unleashed a heavy and unfamiliar sound that over the course of the mid-'70s would transmute into something utterly iconic. After major American chart success and legendary tours throughout the '80s, singer Rob Halford seceded from the group in May 1992. While both camps pursued other musical interests and options for the '90s, the division only further cemented the band’s legendary status and left fans clamoring with unmatchable fervor for Halford’s imminent return to the metal throne which finally came in 2003. While several albums have been released since the reunification, it is Redeemer of Souls that truly picks up where Painkiller left off. Even in the absence of longtime guitarist K.K. Downing, the band seems to have rediscovered a part of its essence and comes off sounding more bloodthirsty than ever. While in Kansas City last week, just before Game 1 of the World Series kicked off the same night as Priest performed, Halford took a few minutes out of his schedule to talk about the new album, vikings, and long swords and lone wolves.
The new album sounds great. I remember buying Painkiller as a kid and it takes me back to that, something new, but also classic Priest at the same time.
That’s beautiful. Thank you. We had a great time making it. It was a blast to have the opportunity to make another studio album. Especially with Richie Faulkner being in the band now as well, it’s like a new dynamic suddenly appeared.
I imagine you are getting a solid response to the new material.
Yeah, it's going great. Fans are going crazy. “Halls of Valhalla,” “March of the Damned,” “Redeemer of Souls,” unbelievable. You know, when we were laying down the tracks, we wanted to try and capture that live feel. We wanted to make sure that the live vibe of the band was caught in the studio. And as a result of that, it really transcribes over to the live stage really straightforward, really smoothly.
“Halls of Valhalla” has an amazing scream where you go from a low doom voice up into your high register. In a career of blood-curdling screams, I’ve never heard you do one quite like that. Where did the inspiration for that come from?
Laughs I was kinda jamming and messing around with that and then I started to do my kind of dark, death, black metal vocal laughs just cause I was like, not exactly fooling around, I wasn’t. It just felt like the right thing to do. I could just see these Vikings in my head, you know? And I could see these long swords, and the boats, and the fucking culture — It just felt like that was the right type of vibe to try and it’s already getting great feedback.
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What about your songwriting process? Are you always writing lyrics down?
Yeah, I’ve always got my iMac. I’ve got an iPad full of mostly title ideas and words that I call “bullet point words.” A word is enough for me sometimes. Like "Valhalla" — "Valhalla" was enough to get me motivated. And then expressions like “Painkiller” or “Living After Midnight” or “Redeemer of Souls.” What is a "Redeemer of Souls?" It could be many, many things. It all starts with a very simple skeletal idea. I guess it’s like you when you put this interview together. You’ll take the main significant pieces and put together a good interview for the fans of the paper to read. It’s still quite challenging, really, cause, you know, there’s only so many words in the English language laughs. There’s only so many letters. That’s what I love about music, you know? There’s only like a half dozen notes more laughs, and yet there’s a bazillion different ways of putting the whole thing in a different order and a different kind of experience. So yeah, I keep an iPad with me full of stuff. And, you know, it can come from anywhere, off the TV, off an article I’m reading off my iPad, anything. It’s important to be ready to grasp it and capture it. It’s a bit like lightning in a bottle, really. When you get a good idea, it rarely stays around too long. You can forget it and lose it quickly. So it’s always good to be able to capture it and find a way of preserving it.
Do you just glance through your ideas when you hear the guys playing riffs and figure out what goes where?
That’s it. That’s it exactly. When Richie and Glen Tipton are jamming and I’m just going through my iPad and I’m like “this particular riff” or “that particular phrasing” really kind of makes me feel like this is the right word or that’s the right phrase to go with the song. It’s like journeying into the unknown: You can start today in the studio with nothing and then you could end up with something that’s going to be around a lot longer than you are, so to speak laughs.
With so much classic material, how do you go about deciding what goes in the set list for a tour like this?
Well here’s the deal: We are thrilled to be out promoting our new record, Redeemer of Souls — it’s the "Redeemer of Souls Tour." So there’s an opportunity for us to play those songs live to the fans that have already got the record, and are digging the music. Also to introduce the songs to some of the fans who maybe haven’t made their mind up. And then you balance it out with the rest of the material, and it is a nightmare laughs. I tell you, Mathis, it’s just, sighs where do you start? You’ve got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of songs to choose from. When you see a band, you’re probably aware of this, there are dynamics. It’s like going to see a Broadway show or a ball game. There are dynamics: The way it starts, the way it motors through, the way it climaxes towards the end. So, you’ve got to have all those dynamics in your thinking when you’re putting down a set list. Tempos, how the songs are going to be delivered with the visuals that you match up, the lighting, the video screens. There’s a lot of thought that goes into it. But, we’ve got this pretty solid, Mathis. I think any band, when they start the first week of tour and you’re kind of kicking the tires on songs to see whether or not they’re going to work or whether you’ve got to change the running order or bring in some new material, but we seem to have got in right on the first go. The Rochester show on Oct. 1 just blew the roof off. So we thought, that was pretty good. It was locking in. So by the time we come to Duluth, they’ll be a lot of fans that have probably caught a glimpse of it on the Internet and know something about the set list that’s happening. And there will be fans eagerly waiting to get those songs live and in the flesh.
Priest really pioneered its own sound and there really was no formula for what you were doing when you started. Did you make a conscious decision to go for a heavier, dark sound or was that just the way you guys played?
Yeah, I think it was a brand new sound wasn’t it? It was like whoever invented jazz, or blues, or funk, or R&B. You are utterly in the dark because you’re discovering a new way of making music happen. With us, of course, we came along when all the technology was in place, when those Marshall amps were being made for the first time, and those Celestion speaker 4x12 cabs were being made. Everything was getting louder, and stronger, and heavier. So we were able to match in our ideas, our kind of dream wish list, if you will, with the equipment that was made available. Coming off the back of the '60s technology revolution, everything was getting louder, everything was getting stronger, everything was getting fiercer. So, we took all those elements and put them together and tried to develop a new sound that became Judas Priest.
Watching the Priest sound develop over the first handful of records is like watching an alchemist refine his process and create a more potent substance.
Yeah it is very much like that. Any bands of longevity have done that. It is like going into the lab — you go into the lab and you’ve got all these different components ready to be used. After all this time, you should know internally exactly how to bring all the right ingredients together to make a good metal song.
It has been documented that you are a huge Robert Plant and Janis Joplin fan. I’ve also heard of Arthur Brown being one of your early influences.
I love Arthur Brown. I love it when I hear singers do something I’ve never heard before. Just like, going for it. Not worried about the rules, if there were any. Just throwing it out there, primordial type of performances that were just unleashed, I love that. I saw the Crazy World of Arthur Brown live in my hometown in Walsall when I was, I think in my early twenties or late teens, I can’t remember exactly. It was amazing. Very theatrical, even then Arthur was putting really cool stuff out. He was a game changer in the UK. Let us say, if you have one successful song in your career, that song can sustain you. And of course, Crazy World of Arthur Brown and “Fire” is his treasure, but he was more than that obviously. He was a very experimental, very imaginative guy. And so a lot of those people, like Planty and Joplin, Bessie Smith, early blues singers, very early opera singers, Ella Fitzgerald, Gene Pitney, Edith Piaf, Judy Garland, anybody that was doing something a little bit different. I’ve got a ton of them influences. A lot of them are old school, but a lot of what we have today has its roots in old school innovators.
It’s been written that you found solace in your spirituality when you became clean in 1986. What about solace and/or power in metal and music in general? Is there something there that draws people in that may feel like outsiders?
Well yeah. That’s a really cool question. I think when you go through cleaning yourself up, you discover parts of you that you didn’t know existed before. And there’s a lot of clean and sober people in metal, not only in bands but also in the audience. The metal world has always been looked at in a different way to everything else It’s probably more appreciated and less misunderstood now, but I think we’re still unique amongst ourselves. We’re like the lone wolves of rock 'n’ roll, or whatever you might want to brand us as. I’ve just felt because of that aspect, because we know what it’s like to have our music sometimes rejected and pushed away from us, it makes us tighter, it makes us more resilient, it makes us feel stronger about the music that we love. And that then crosses over into (that it) doesn’t really matter what your orientation is, or what race, religion you are. It’s all about breaking down the barriers in what we call the metal world, the metal community. You know, I’m going out on stage now clean and sober probably having a better time than when I was stumbling about on there drunk and didn’t know what I was doing. laughs
Have you been singing your whole life?
I started as a late teen. I’ve been singing for my metal supper for 40 years laughs.
Judas Priest plays the Arena at Gwinnett Center on Tues., Oct. 28. $36-$56. 8 p.m. 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth. 770-813-7600. www.gwinnettcenter.com.