Tuyo, the theme tune from Narcos, wafts lazily within the background of the dimly lit studio, as Rob Halford, Judas Priest’s iconic frontman, glares throughout the darkish lenses of his aviator sun shades, his head topped through a glittery leather-based cop hat. The photographer snaps away.
Dressed to the nines in his black biker coat, palms decorated with fingerless, studded gloves, Rob looks as if he’s able to rain hellfire and brimstone upon a stadium filled with surging, wild-eyed headbangers. Then issues get bizarre. “Are you able for a kitty cat?” inquires Travis Shinn, the photographer.
“I’m all the time able for a kitty cat,” Rob replies, with palpable pleasure. That is no saucy volley of double entendres, however an alternate that introduces a heart-melting spectacle. A tiny, orange tabby kitten is passed to Rob, and his stoic steel façade crumbles, revealing a person bursting with unadulterated pleasure. It’s obtrusive to each metalhead with an web connection that Rob loves kittens.
On Instagram (727,000 fans and counting), he posts an inordinate quantity of tom cat memes, poses in kitty t-shirts, and steadily tags LA nonprofit Kitten Rescue. On the other hand, as of late’s photoshoot is at a recording studio in Rob’s homeland of Phoenix, Arizona, so we’ve known as in native organisation the Arizona Animal Welfare League to decorate Rob’s day.
Kiwi, the tabby, gazes deeply into the Steel God’s face earlier than unexpectedly turning fugitive. After a swift rescue, he’s changed with Hazel, a shy black kitten with saucer-sized eyes. She purrs her means into Rob’s embody, discovering solace in his snowy white beard. The room is now a symphony of coos and clicks, as Travis immortalises the affection fest. Rob, misplaced within the second, lavishes Hazel with affection, in a scene that’s oddly delicate and starkly other from the steel fury that he’s recognized to command.
“I really like all creatures,” Rob says wistfully, after the ultimate kitten has been whisked away. “Animals have been right here earlier than we have been, weren’t they? Ha ha! So there’s the glory proper there. They’re such the most important a part of your lifestyles, whether or not you’re an proprietor of a canine, cat, lizard, snake… You increase a bond to this residing, respiring creature. They’re partners, they’ve empathy. In particular when there’s some more or less problem happening of their individual’s lifestyles, like a bereavement, they snuggle as much as you. It’s an overly profound second.”
We retreat to a comfortable again front room within the studio – a hallowed floor the place Rob’s etched numerous tracks into the annals of steel historical past. His longtime spouse, Thomas, delivers a steaming cup of espresso to him. We droop into the black leather-based couches, able to get a way of Rob Halford in 2024. Within the public eye, he’s a screeching, leather-clad firebrand, a tireless preacher within the church of heavy steel, ever able to unfold the gospel to the horn-throwing trustworthy around the globe.
He’s additionally a beacon of inclusivity and a much-loved member of the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood, popping out on MTV in 1998. However seated throughout from us as of late, Rob is mellow. His 72 years have ended in knowledge born from uncooked lifestyles revel in, and a sobriety streak working 38 years sturdy. He speaks with an ease that’s disarming, flipping questions again at us like a seasoned card shark. Many years within the States haven’t scrubbed away that thick Black Nation accessory, as though it’s a badge of honour he refuses to shed.
“Who I’m as an individual hasn’t ever truly dissipated,” he says. Smiling, he continues, “We name ourselves ‘Yam Yams.’ To be a ‘Yam Yam’ is to return from my a part of the West Midlands, or the Black Nation, as we name it. And also you don’t put your self on a pedestal. You don’t carry your self as a result of we’re all folks, all of us do other forms of jobs. I occur to be a singer in a heavy steel band. The truth that it’s who it’s and what we’ve completed is beside the point.”
In 1973, Rob joined forces with the rampaging British steel beast referred to as Judas Priest, including his otherworldly vocals to a vintage line-up that incorporated guitarists Glenn Tipton and Ok.Ok. Downing, along bassist Ian Hill. Participants have come and long gone right through the following part century, together with Rob himself, who took go away of the band from 1992-2003 to pursue quite a lot of solo initiatives.
Ok.Ok. Downing left in 2011 and, for a number of years now, the line-up has featured Rob, Glenn and Ian along drummer Scott Travis (since 1989) and guitarist Richie Faulkner (since 2011). They’re now poised to unlock Invincible Defend – extremely, it’ll be the nineteenth album for the band, and the seventeenth for Rob.
In this day and age, Rob’s a ways from his fellow Yam Yams. He first set foot in Arizona in 1988, rolling via the city after a display in Las Vegas. Phoenix, a unusual cocktail of painted wasteland mirage and urban fact, whispered seductively to him, its sun-blasted landscapes reducing a stark distinction to the commercial West Midlands.
“I’ve all the time stated that everyone has some other favorite position, don’t they?” he says. “Like if it’s a holiday position, you stay going again to that one particular holiday position as it manner such a lot to you. That’s what came about to me with Phoenix.”
Through the years, myriad bands have requested Rob to percentage his insights for surviving the steel-jawed carnivore that’s the track trade, together with a tender Gadget Of A Down passing via Phoenix within the 90s, whilst opening for Slayer. “I informed them that you’ve to bear in mind to like each and every different, communicate to one another and provides each and every different hugs,” he says.
“Each and every band is that this nice giant emotional fireball. It’s an overly tough procedure to stay all of it running properly. At the musical degree, issues may well be running positive, nevertheless it’s the opposite belongings you truly want to concentrate on as properly. That’s why I all the time say, in my bits of Gandalf steel knowledge, communicate to one another. No matter’s to your thoughts, simply say what it’s. The advance of your dating with folks within the band is more than likely extra essential than your dating with the track.”
In 1986, after years of relentlessly punishing his frame and his psyche with booze and medication, Rob put himself earlier than the track and raised the white flag together with his bandmates. He dove headlong into restoration, and has remained blank and sober ever since. In 2020, he underwent therapies to take away cancerous growths from his prostate, receiving the all-clear from docs a yr later.
“Ahead of,” he says, “when I used to be confronted with lifestyles problems, in particular when I used to be within the closet, I’d simply get blitzed out of my thoughts as a result of a) it might make me really feel higher and b) it might more or less hose down down the ache I used to be going via. With the intention to be at this position now the place you deal head-on with, ‘Oh, you’ve were given most cancers’ – again within the day, it might had been ‘Give me a few traces,’ or ‘Let me do a gram.’”
Nowadays, Rob exudes a deep sense of ease. Each and every morning, he does a prayer ritual, and each evening he practises gratitude. “Now I’m all the time at this type of non violent position, to handle the rest that lifestyles throws at me,” he provides. “It’s a ravishing factor, isn’t it? This is a reward.”
It’s a present that served him properly in 1998 when, throughout his time clear of Judas Priest, he stepped into the evident lighting of MTV and got here out to the sector. “I believe that most of the people know that I’ve been a homosexual guy all of my lifestyles, and it’s most effective been in recent years that it’s a subject I think at ease to deal with,” he stated on digital camera. “That is the instant to talk about it.”
“After I made that announcement on the MTV studio, I didn’t truly realise how giant of a deal that used to be going to be,” he says as of late. “This used to be earlier than the web, so the best way the message used to be communicated used to be at a snail’s tempo. Which isn’t a foul factor, as a result of when Billie Eilish after all made the pronunciation of who she is [she unintentionally came out as bisexual in 2023], the sector used to be on fireplace for 48 hours after which the sector moved on. I believe I understood inside of an issue of days how I’d now put myself into a spot of, ‘What’s going to occur subsequent?’”
Within the panorama of the 90s track trade, popping out as LGBTQIA+ used to be similar to stepping right into a storm. An artist risked misplaced report offers, vanishing radio play and a mainstream target market recoiling of their archaic prejudices. For Rob to move public used to be natural braveness on show, and he felt a flood of aid.
“There’s surely that I turned into a greater individual as a result of I may simply let pass of numerous the partitions that I needed to create round me for my very own coverage,” he continues. “Most commonly for the band’s coverage. If I’d have long gone again to Priest as I did, and I nonetheless hadn’t pop out of the closet, would I’ve made that announcement? Existence has those stunning issues that occur to you which are infrequently from your achieve. In order that popping out episode used to be more than likely the most productive alternative that I needed to unexpectedly be who I’m.”
Nowadays, Rob isn’t just a well-loved member of the steel neighborhood, however of the mainstream. In 2022, Judas Priest have been after all inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor Of Status, along nation track legend – and homosexual icon – Dolly Parton. The rite unleashed a unusual but sensible spectacle, with the Steel God becoming a member of forces with Dolly or a rendition of her large hit Jolene, resplendent in an extended, black, glinting jacket with vertical, stud-embellished white strips.
“Come what may, instinctively, I knew we have been going to satisfy,” Rob explains with a radiant depth. “I all the time inform the tale of my mom’s grandmother, who used to be a clairvoyant, and I nonetheless assume I’ve were given just a little of that during me, as a result of one thing went, ‘You’re going to satisfy Dolly Parton.’
Two or 3 days later, those emails come into the administrative center, and Dolly’s reached out, asking, ‘Would you sing some traces on Jolene?’ You sit down at house and pass, ‘Oh my god, that is in reality going to occur!’ Being a homosexual man, ‘I’ve were given not anything to put on!’ I do know that she loves to sparkle and I love to sparkle, so what I wore on that evening used to be apropos.”
After they first met on the practice session, the 2 legends clicked instantly. “She is going, ‘I really like your beard!’” he exclaims, “and he or she begins to wash my beard! It used to be so surreal! I’m assembly this residing legend and he or she’s tickling my beard and going, ‘So that you’re going to sing some Jolene with me?’ I used to be simply floating.”
In 2023, the 2 duetted at the tune Bygones, for Dolly’s crossover album, Rockstar. Rob opens his fingers and gestures widely around the room, explaining that he recorded his vocals on this very studio whilst she used to be in Nashville together with her manufacturer, Kent Wells.
“We’re at the telephone to one another and he or she’s going [puts on a credible Southern US accent], ‘Ship me the recordsdata! Ship me the recordsdata!’ So I despatched her the recordsdata and he or she calls again and is going, ‘I really like those! That is gonna be nice!’ That is Dolly Parton on speakerphone! Ha ha! She’s simply this gorgeous beacon of lifestyles. You’ll inform through the best way I’m talking that that is essential to me as a musician, to have had this actually once-in-a-lifetime alternative to paintings with any individual so nice.”
It wasn’t the one once-in-a-lifetime alternative Rob had ultimate yr. On October 7, he walked onstage at California’s Energy Shuttle – some of the largest steel gala’s in historical past. With upwards of 200,000 attendees over 3 days, it featured Metallica, Iron Maiden, Weapons N’ Roses, AC/DC, Software and there, like a phoenix emerging from the ashes of Ozzy Osbourne’s unlucky cancellation because of well being causes, Judas Priest.
Reviewers, in a blissed-out, post-festival haze, anointed Judas Priest because the weekend’s zenith, eclipsing even the mighty AC/DC. It used to be an exciting testomony to the electrifying attract of OG British steel in an international overrun through a mainstream long gone stagnant. “It felt proper,” Rob says.
“It felt like we had to be there. I noticed all my buddies who have been going to be taking part in, together with Ozzy, and I believed, ‘Guy, that is so nice. What an ideal pass phase of rock and steel.’ However Energy Shuttle used to be extra about appearing this league of musicians in combination in an overly distinctive presentation. The unhappiness that Ozzy wasn’t in a position to make it and the fun to get the decision – that Ozzy would like to peer for those who guys would step in – that more or less finished the image in numerous tactics, minus Ozzy.”
In 2018, Glenn Tipton stepped clear of traveling tasks after disclosing a analysis of later-stage Parkinson’s illness. He’s remained lively within the studio and has gave the impression onstage with the band quite a few occasions since. Within the dusty California wasteland, he joined them as soon as once more to the roaring pleasure of the gang.
Beaming with satisfaction, Rob says, “It used to be simply stunning when he got here out and the target market went, ‘Glenn!’ He’s one of these hero and he gained such a lot love and admire, as he merits, as a result of he’s some of the biggest ever steel guitar avid gamers that’s lived. There’s no different guitar participant like Glenn Tipton. “That used to be a unique second for Glenn. It used to be virtually like a whole cycle as a result of – I gained’t say this with my hand on my coronary heart – however there’s a chance that used to be the ultimate time that you just noticed Glenn play are living.
It’s getting increasingly more tough for him. So for him to seek out the energy to in truth pop out and play is a gorgeous factor. Having stated that, we’re about to start out the massive Invincible Defend excursion in the United Kingdom and, if I do know Glenn, he’ll get in his automotive and power to Glasgow, do the display after which power house. Ha ha!”
[since this interview, Glenn has indeed made two more appearances with Judas Priest as part of the band’s UK tour]
With Rob, Glenn and Ian of their 70s, it’d be each simple and deceptive to view Invincible Defend as a bookend to Judas Priest’s storied profession. For Rob, it’s a continuation of what they’ve all the time delivered. “It’s some other sturdy, forged illustration of what this band can do,” he says. “We’re now not maintaining again. There’s nonetheless this full-on decision to peer if we’ve nonetheless were given it.”
With Invincible Defend, they’ve distilled the essence in their previous and combined it with the pressure of recent manufacturing. Within the ‘Don’t Restore Issues That Paintings Simply Superb’ class, the blokes relied at the songwriting fashion that’s served them faithfully for many years.
“When Glenn and Richie and myself get in a room, like Priest have all the time accomplished, as a three-piece – two guitar avid gamers and a singer – that’s the steel magic,” Rob explains. “All of that power, all of that younger exuberance used to be nonetheless there in the ones preliminary writing periods.”
Rob then solutions the query about Glenn that’s been ceaselessly requested on social media. “He’s nonetheless the most important contributor to the entirety this band does,” Rob says, “together with his paintings in every single place Invincible Defend. That’s Glenn taking part in the guitar. So whether or not it’s only a chord, whether or not it’s riffs, or whether or not it’s just a little little bit of lead, Glenn is on Invincible Defend. That must be stated. His worth and his enter have now not decreased; he’s simply as essential part of Priest as he ever used to be.”
As Rob listened to the grooves coming in combination, the lyrics and topics started revealing themselves to him – in particular the defiant name monitor. “I realised that every one of those songs are a part of an invincible protect,” he explains.
“Priest is an invincible protect. Steel is an invincible protect. Our fanatics create an invincible protect. I simply love the visualisation. To begin with, a protect defends you, nevertheless it additionally means that you can push ahead. It’s an ideal object, a protect. Then you definitely put the phrase ‘invincible’ subsequent to it and guy, that’s a large remark proper there. I offered the entire concept to the blokes and so they have been like, ‘Yeah, thumbs up – let’s do that!’”
Longtime manufacturer Andy Sneap has taken on a good higher position. Along with stepping in for Glenn because the band’s 2d guitarist, he wields a galaxy of revel in gleaned from generating and jamming with a legion of steel bands.
“Andy’s a blessing,” says Rob. “In the beginning, the day that Glenn stated he felt that he used to be going to step again and let Andy stand in his position onstage, that used to be an overly profound second. Andy used to be in a position to do Glenn’s portions truly properly. He used to be in a band known as Hell and he used to be in a band known as Sabbat.” Rob grins. “That’s the black canine steel – the evil stuff, as I name it.”
Invincible Defend opens with an eyebrow-searing firestorm of Panic Assault, The Serpent And The King and the name monitor. “We all the time take into accounts the ones first 3 tracks,” explains Rob. “I believe that each band understands that your fanatics had been eagerly watching for your new track and also you’ve truly were given to be sturdy and forceful in what you’re showing. Through the top of your 3rd tune, the dedication will have to be there out of your fanatics. They’ve were given to be going, ‘You guys have were given it. I’m all-in!’”
At this second, Travis, our photographer, walks into the room to bid farewell. He compliments Rob at the black leather-based codpiece he wore throughout the shoot, earlier than turning to depart. “Travis! Come right here… Travis!” shouts Rob. As he re-enters the room, Rob flings the codpiece to him. “Are you critical?” asks a gobsmacked Travis.
“Sure. It’s a brand new one, in truth,” Rob says.
“You simply made my day,” says our intrepid photographer.
“You’ll ship me a Christmas card with you dressed in that,” laughs Rob. “Have you ever ever, on your lifestyles, with the entire bands you’ve labored with, had a present like that?”
Howls of laughter fill the room. Along side a brand new album and traveling, 2024 ushers in a momentous instance: the anniversary of Priest’s debut album. For Rob, it’s one thing of a full-circle second.
“We’re going to be celebrating 50 years of Rocka Rolla, so I’ve simply sat down and been taking note of it once more. We’ve were given some thrilling issues within the pipeline for that report,” he smiles. “The timing on One For The Street, and the phraseology on that, it’s so strange, so other, it’s so never-been-done-before… the ones little parts had been with Priest from Rocka Rolla to Invincible Defend.”
At 72 years outdated, Rob stays energised, nonetheless turning in steel bangers with convincing pastime whilst taking time to donate codpieces to wayward photographers, cuddle cats, run a wildly entertaining Instagram account and be a most often superior human being. Despite the fact that seasoned through the years in the back of him, Rob Halford continues to appear squarely into the long run, embracing trade and residing in a state of gratitude.
“What I love as of late concerning the track trade is that individuals used to have to suit into packing containers. It used to be virtually like there used to be an expiration date, you already know? Ageism would play its position and the best way you appeared performed a job. All that’s accomplished now.
There’s simply general admire there for the entirety that you just do, the way you glance, what you are saying, whether or not you’re directly, homosexual, no matter. That’s beside the point, as a result of we’re all folks and we’re all being inventive within the track global.”
He smiles. “We’re nonetheless a number of youngsters, truly! Ha ha! We get within the van and turn each and every different off! It’s silly nevertheless it’s stunning.”
Invincible Defend is out now by the use of Sony. Judas Priest are on excursion now. For the total checklist of dates, consult with the band’s respectable web page
