ritchie

ROB HALFORD On New JUDAS PRIEST CD: 'We're A Long Way From The
Finishing Line' - Feb. 6, 2007

Sweden's Metalshrine conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST
frontman Rob Halford on January 30, 2007. A few excerpts from the chat
follow:

Metalshrine: I was watching the video for [the new HALFORD song]
"Forgotten Generation" on YouTube and there's a lot of disturbing images
with police violence and so forth. What's the story behind [that track]?

Rob Halford: 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.

Metalshrine: How far have you come in the recording of the [new
JUDAS PRIEST] album ["Nostradamus"]? The structure of the songs, are they
done and are you just working on the lyrics now or what?

Rob Halford: Like any band you go through the difficult stage,
which is sitting down, like Glenn [Tipton] and Ken [K.K. Downing] 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 prophecize 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.

Metalshrine: Do you have any titles ready?

Rob Halford: 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. They'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.

Metalshrine: Are you producing it yourselves or are you working
with a producer?

Rob Halford: Well, the initial stage is we're basically looking
after everything ourselves 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.

Metalshrine: You haven't started thinking about art work for the
album then?

Rob Halford: 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.

Metalshrine: How involved are you in that?

Rob Halford: 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.

Metalshrine: I read somewhere that you're planning on playing
the whole album live. Any truth to that?

Rob Halford: Yeah, we will do that.

Metalshrine: The same kind of thing that IRON MAIDEN did?

Rob Halford: 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.

Read the entire interview at Metalshrine.

--
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind."
-Dr. Seuss-

frank the poet

"Ritchie" <noone@noplace.com> skrev i melding
news:45c8ebb2$0$8997$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...

Maiden played the entire album live with success??? Where?

kev242

On Feb 6, 6:46 pm, "Frank The Poet"
<liverpoolrosenborgnardoforfarrangerswerdervalen.. .@crewegrimsbykidderminsterstoke.no>


What's he gonna say? Maiden did that and some people were pissed
lol? He's already said they are gonna do the all Nostra set on a
limited early tour and then come back and do a regular tour, so I
think they learned something from Maiden's debacle.

frank

Metalshrine: How far have you come in the recording of the [new


The band does know that nothing Nostradamus predicted has really been particularly specific or accurate, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostradamus

ian salsbury

"Frank The Poet"
<liverpoolrosenborgnardoforfarrangerswerdervalenci a@crewegrimsbykidderminsterstoke.no>

They certainly went down a storm when I saw them play it at Cardiff. I`ve
downloaded several bootlegs from this tour and the crowd are very receptive
on every one.

kev242

Yea, I think everyone knows that. This just in: THERE IS NO EASTER
BUNNY.

kev242

I think it went down better in other countries. Im sure some in the
US didn't mind either, but most US Maiden friends (as our friend Bruce
never tires of reminding us) are fans of the older stuff and don't
care so much for the new material. To be honest, while I listen to
the new stuff it doesn't do much for me and is forgotten along with
their last two albums (ironically Tyranny of Souls still gets plays on
my iPod...).

ian salsbury

Well yeah, Maiden are far bigger in Europe than they are Stateside. It will
be interesting to see how Priest go down doing this ( obviously it will
depend in part on the quality of the album ). It seems the roles are
reversed with Maiden/Priest - Europe/States. I think Priest will get a
better response over there doing the whole album thing than they will here.
On the presumption the album will be 60-70 minutes long what songs do you
expect them to flesh out the gig with in the final half hour or so? Would be
nice if they dropped the real obvious choices which Maiden did ( to an
extent ) by not playing RttH, NotB and The Trooper. I`d have liked to have
seen them shake it up even more and play *no* usual setlist songs so what
would everyone choice be for Priest?

I`d go for...the Nostradamus album (obviously) followed with

Tyrant
Jawbreaker
Rapid Fire
Beyond the Realms of Death ( their best song IMO and an un-touchable part of
the set )
All Guns Blazin`
Take on the World
Breaking the Law ( alright, I know this one *is* obvious but would it be
Priest without it? )

I make that around an extra 30-35 minutes...

ritchie

I think the live version is even better than the album one.


I can go without hearing this one. Its a good song but the vocals at the
begining kill it for me. I much prefer they do Hellrider or Demonizer off of
AoR or PK or BTHaTA off of PK.


Hmm.... I think your the only one (besides me) on this NG that doesnt mind hearing this one.

I know and besides the live version kicks ass.

ritchie

Umm...yeah but who really cares?