“It was 4 o’clock within the morning and I couldn’t sleep due to my insomnia,” he says. “I believed: ‘Perhaps I ought to inform those that I’m going to start out an OnlyFans.’ I’d borrow a cat and maintain it towards my nether areas: ‘You thought you have been going to get cock however you bought pussy.’”
He lets out a cackle that’s extra Carry On movie than budding web porn baron.
It’s mid-afternoon on a Friday in Phoenix, Arizona, the place Halford has referred to as house for the previous 38 years, and the Judas Priest singer is in an ebullient temper. As he must be: his band are about to launch their nineteenth album, Invincible Defend Redeemer Of Souls Firepower
We’ll get to Invincible Defend shortly, however first again to cats. It’s no coincidence that Halford introduced felines into his 4am waking dream of beginning an OnlyFans web page. His Instagram feed is roughly 65 per cent cat-related: images of cats doing silly shit, movies of random cats doing silly shit, images of the singer in an assortment of comedy cat-related T-shirts.
“Cats are stunning,” he says. “They appear so cute and cuddly, but they’re so extremely fierce and unbiased: ‘I’ve simply took a shit, clear this up.’” He doesn’t personal any in the intervening time, a lot as he’d like to. “I acquired so engrossed with my earlier cat that I by no means wished to go away the home with out him,” he says. “You’ll be able to’t take a cat on the tour bus. They’d simply wreak havoc.”
The opposite 35 per cent of his Instagram is a splurge of pleasure, whether or not it’s the quite a few images of Halford posing subsequent to the cactus in his again backyard that appears prefer it’s throwing the horns, or saucy photos of the singer “standing there like an fool in my heavy metallic bondage gear.” What unites all of it is a way of joyousness. In a darkish world, Rob Halford’s Instagram is a small beacon of sunshine.
The identical might be stated of Invincible Defend . For all its steely, state-of-the-art sound and none-more-Priest music titles – Panic Assault, The Serpent And The King, Gates Of Hell, Sons Of Thunder – it’s fuelled by a way of positivity that flies within the face of prevailing 2024 tendencies. ‘Invincible, our lots are united ,’ Halford sings on the title observe. ‘Invincible, can by no means be divided and nothing can stand in our means .’
“I’ve all the time been a proponent of strolling in the direction of the sunshine,” he says. “One other Factor Coming, The Sentinel, Painkiller , all these characters that we create come out on prime. I believe all people’s acquired an invincible protect. While you bang up towards one thing, whether or not it’s a private problem or a monetary problem or a well being problem, you could have this private energy you may launch.”
Six years between albums is a very long time. Admittedly the hole between Invincible Defend and Firepower isn’t fairly so long as that which separated 1990’s Painkiller and 1997’s Jugulator , however they did have Halford’s departure to cope with again then.
Richie Faulkner is conscious that folks would possibly marvel why bands take so lengthy to make albums lately. When Priest began work on the follow-up to Firepower in early 2020, the guitarist assumed it might be out in 2022 on the newest.
“Then we had the pandemic,” he says. “Then there are the tour dates that acquired knocked again. You do assume: ‘Will this factor ever get completed?’ However there must be a problem. It’s just like the shark in Jaws: when it didn’t work, they discovered methods to get round it, and it made for a greater film.”
Faulkner is at house at his home in Nashville, the place he’s lived for the previous few years. The Londoner has been a member of Priest since 2011, when he changed unique guitarist KK Downing. “I’ll all the time be the brand new boy,” he says self-effacingly.
Which may be true chronologically, however Faulkner’s time within the band has coincided with a purple patch that exhibits no signal of ending. Invincible Defend is their third genuinely nice album in a row, a feat few bands of their classic can pull off.
“The problem every time is to do one thing that’s higher,” says the guitarist. “Higher sounding, higher carried out, higher produced.”
It’s the type of factor each musician says about their new document, however on this case it’s true. Invincible Defend does push Priest ahead. It’s by no means going to have the identical impression because the albums they launched within the late 70s and early 80s, however that’s a matter of timing relatively than high quality. It’s definitely the equal of 1990’s Painkiller , a document that reset the band’s profession after a late-80s wobble.
As with all Priest albums, there’s extra occurring than seems at first look. The band stay the last word heavy metallic ambassadors, embodying the style’s utter sincerity and its potential to wink at itself on the identical time. However Halford’s lyrics run deeper than his potential to provide you with a thousand completely different descriptions for ‘metallic’ (attention-grabbing reality: he’s been utilizing the identical thesaurus for the reason that days of Sin After Sin ). The album’s opening observe and first single, Panic Assault , is a screaming dive-bomb of an anthem, but it surely was impressed by what Halford sees because the darker, extra pernicious affect of the web.
“The web is good, but it surely has created some horrible issues,” he says. “The way in which that language is used on-line to be damaging and corruptive and conspiracy-laden, the entire bullying factor, it’s horrible.”
He’s in full-on reflective mode on Crown Of Horns , a slow-burning not-quite-ballad about bearing your individual ache. ‘I discovered the onerous means that what you dreamed for comes from the ache you maintain inside ,’ he sings.
“I used to be desirous about Ukraine, about standing up for your self within the face of one thing horrible,” he says. “And it made me take into consideration what’s occurring with these poor souls, and the Russians who’ve been dragged into it. However the lyric ‘A name out to the world tonight, increase your horns up excessive ’, that’s about collective unity. That’s the metallic group as properly. We’re all in it collectively. We’re all in it to win it.”
He says he was anxious about being too self-reflective this time round. “I stated to the blokes: ‘Am I being too ‘me, me, me’? And so they stated: ‘No, all of us really feel that means.’ I believe everybody can relate to that feeling, simply being on this private journey that’s your individual.”
The closing observe on Invincible Defend is titled Giants In The Sky . It’s a triumphant hymn to the music Rob Halford has listened to and liked through the years, and the women and men who made it.
“Listening to music makes me take into consideration all these stunning individuals we’ve misplaced in rock’n’roll, from Janis Joplin to Ronnie Dio to Lemmy ,” he says, “but additionally about the truth that music lives for ever.”
Halford’s Instagram web page options quite a lot of images of the musicians he’s identified through the years, lots of them not with us, and Ronnie Dio and Lemmy each function closely.
“Ronnie was a rare man,” he says, “he was very pleasant, very affable, he preferred to giggle, he didn’t put anybody down. However he was very severe about his music. Once we did the Hear N’ Assist factor [the all-star heavy metal charity single released in 1985], all these individuals in that room seemed as much as Ronnie. No matter he urged, all people listened.”
“And I’ve fond reminiscences of sitting on Lemmy’s lap after he’d simply come off stage, along with his hair in a white towel turban. I’m giving him a hug, and he’s sweating in all places. However I all the time felt slightly bit intimidated in Ronnie’s presence and in Lemmy’s presence. Simply due to the energy of their character and their character. I felt I used to be a step again from them. They have been giants, I used to be simply an admirer.”
Lots of people would take problem with that, the organisers of the Rock And Roll Corridor Of Fame amongst them. In 2022, Priest have been inducted into the Corridor Of Fame, a mere 23 years after they first turned eligible. When Basic Rock spoke to Halford in 2021, he insisted that he didn’t care about being within the Corridor Of Fame. “It doesn’t make any distinction,” he stated on the time.
“Yeah, I used to be most likely fibbing,” he admits now. “As a result of on the night time it was magic. Ken [ex-guitarist KK Downing] was there, Les [Binks, former drummer] was there. You have a look at all these people who find themselves supplying you with the horns, from Eminem to Lionel Ritchie, and also you assume: ‘Is that this actually occurring?’ And what you don’t count on is Pink coming as much as you and supplying you with a hug and saying: ‘I used to put in writing your title on my faculty books.’ Or Sheryl Crow going: ‘I’ve liked your voice ever since Residing After Midnight .’ That’s the loveliness of all of it.”
He says he thought of it so much within the run as much as the HOF ceremony in November 2022, and he’s thought of it so much since. “Take away the institutionalisation of all of it, and also you’re left with a bunch of musicians who’ve all been on the identical journey. It doesn’t matter should you’re Lionel Ritchie or Dolly Parton or Judas Priest, there’s the connection. It’s like profitable a Grammy: ‘I don’t desire a fucking Grammy.’ Effectively, sure you do. It’s an affirmation of all of the onerous slog that you just’ve executed. It’s this stunning second the place they’re going: ‘Effectively executed, mate. Have a gong.’”
In October 2023, Priest performed the inaugural Energy Journey pageant in California as a substitute for Ozzy Osbourne , who needed to pull out as a consequence of ongoing well being points. Amusingly, throughout Priest’s set, Metallica ’s James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett have been noticed within the pit, air-guitaring alongside to Priest’s 1980 proto-thrash traditional Fast Hearth . “You could possibly see them down there,” Faulkner says now. “It’s like: ‘Oh shit, we’d higher be on our sport.’”
Priest’s set was memorable for extra than simply the sight of celebrities fanboying out within the entrance row. Through the encore, the band have been joined for 3 songs by guitarist Glenn Tipton. It wasn’t the primary time Tipton had joined his bandmates on stage since asserting in 2018 that he was stepping again from touring after being recognized with Parkinson’s illness, but it surely was definitely essentially the most high-profile look.
“It was very, very troublesome for me after we went out for the primary time with out Glenn,” says Halford. “God bless [replacement live guitarist/Priest producer] Andy Sneap, he’s executed a superb job and no disrespect to him, however I do miss Glenn terribly after we play reside. So when he does come out to have a bang, it’s like: ‘My God!’ It feels so nice.”
Tipton’s situation might have taken him off the street, however each Halford and Faulkner say he was as concerned as ever within the making of Invincible Defend . “It’s completely very important that Glenn is a part of the songwriting staff,” says Faulkner. “Rob, Glenn and me, we go right into a room with concepts and throw them round. No matter problem Glenn has acquired, that’s what he offers with. If he may play, he would play. If he couldn’t, then I’d take it on. We helped one another out like that.
“Glenn’s like an older brother,” he continues. “After I joined he took me underneath his wing as the opposite guitar participant. Once we have been on the street we’d exit collectively. So when he pulled again from touring, I did really feel like my brother wasn’t there. However I do know what it’s wish to have one thing threaten your future profession or your potential to play guitar.”
Halford and Faulkner have every had their very own severe medical points in recent times. In 2020, Halford was recognized with prostate most cancers. After having his prostate eliminated and present process two months of radiation therapy, he was given the all-clear.
“It’s one factor dwelling in the future at a time with sobriety, if you’re desirous about having a pleasant chilly beer – properly, a heat beer in America,” he says. “However after I had the most cancers information it actually shook me up. I went into self-pitying mode. However then I noticed these little youngsters with most cancers on the telly, with tubes protruding of them. I believed: ‘You’re seventy-something, they’re simply little youngsters.’ It places it into perspective.”
Faulkner’s problem was arguably much more extreme. In September 2021 he underwent emergency coronary heart surgical procedure after struggling an acute aortic aneurysm throughout Priest’s set on the Louder Than Life pageant . If he hadn’t been instantly rushed to a close-by hospital, it’s unlikely he’d be right here as we speak to speak about it.
“One thing like that makes you realise we’re not right here for ever,” he says now. “Clearly, we all know that nobody will get out of this alive, but it surely brings it house to you that you just don’t know what’s across the nook. So I all the time assume that should you’ve acquired one thing you need to accomplish, you’ve acquired to do it.”
These experiences, and their respective recoveries, tie into the idea of the Invincible Defend . “It’s a really British factor: simply get on with it, take one step at a time, one step ahead,” says Halford.“The whole lot passes, a technique or one other.”
The whole lot passes, for positive. However that day continues to be some time off for Judas Priest, if Invincible Defend is something to go by. The world tour in help of the album started final month in Glasgow, with fellow lifers Saxon and Uriah Heep in help. Faulkner teases that some deeper cuts could be dropped into the setlist, amongst them Fever (from 1982’s Screaming For Vengeance ), Reckless (from 1986’s Turbo ) and Saints In Hell (from 1978’s Stained Class ).
“Not right away,” he says. “Perhaps because the tour progresses. Let’s see.”
Past that? Faulkner jokingly says he’d “like to attempt to make 5 albums in 5 years”. Halford is bound that there shall be a follow-up in some unspecified time in the future.
“That is the nineteenth studio album,” says the singer. “I don’t like odd numbers. Even when I’m turning the amount up on the telly, it may possibly’t be 13 – it must be 12 or 14. Even numbers are steadiness and concord.”
Does that imply we will count on a brand new Priest album someday within the subsequent six years?
“We’re already desirous about what we’re going to do subsequent,” says Halford. “That’s the enjoyment of music, it by no means stops.”
That’s Judas Priest in a nutshell. Unbreakable. Unyielding. Invincible.
Invincible Defend is accessible now through Columbia Information.
