October 19–26, 2000

20 questions

Rob Halford

As the iron-lunged singer of Judas Priest, self-proclaimed "Metal God" Rob Halford was the voice behind hard rock anthems like "Breaking The Law" and "You’ve Got Another Thing Coming." Since he left Priest in 1990, Halford’s career hasn’t stagnated. Though the biggest headlines he’s made have involved his coming out of the closet, his current band, Halford, is his third project, following power metal outfit Fight and Two, an industrial side project on Trent Reznor’s Nothing Records. Halford and the new album Resurrection (Metal-Is) mark the singer’s return to metal and the band has just wrapped a tour with Iron Maiden and Queensryche. Halford is currently doing a ten date club jaunt that brings him to the Trocadero on Tuesday before departing on a headlining tour of Europe.

Did you enjoy touring with fellow ’80s metal icons Iron Maiden and Queensryche?

It was amazing… I couldn’t have been happier to get that platform to launch Resurrection from.… It reinforced the feeling and the attitude that we’ve always tried: that the power of metal is still vital in the States.

You recently met current Judas Priest singer Ripper Owens, who replaced you in the band. [Owens was formerly in a Judas Priest cover band.] What did you talk about?

There were no specifics, it was the first time I’d ever met the guy in person. There was no tension, no apprehension.… We shook hands and hung out backstage. It was an important thing to do. Any misconceptions people may have had about the band relationship were dismissed. We got along really well, and had a mutual respect for each other.

There have been lots of rumors about you re-claiming the mic in Judas Priest. What are the chances of that happening?

That’s all they are — just rumors. The fact is that Ripper is the new singer of Judas Priest, and that’s where he intends to stay. I’ve got this wonderful Halford band, and I’m excited about the future. We’ve already booked studio time for the spring of next year, so we’re going to be extremely busy for the foreseeable future.

How did your last project, Two, come about?

I enjoyed that moment. If you look at it from a critical point of view, like a lot of the things that Trent [Reznor] gets involved with, people don’t get it right away. You really have to live with a lot of the work that Trent does and revisit it constantly, and suddenly you appreciate the quality and the value of it. I was really glad to have been involved with him. He’s a special man, and he has extraordinary vision when it comes to making new music. That as it was, it was always intended to be a one-off project, and he gave me the opportunity to release it on his label. It was out of that experience, through those moments with Fight and the one-off with Two, that I felt that it was really vital to return to metal. All of the things that I wanted to do after leaving Priest, I seem to have accomplished in just under a ten-year period.

Have you suffered any backlash from the metal community since you came out as a gay man?

It was a wonderful moment. These last few years have been extraordinary, to say the least. If you’re straight, you can’t really perceive what a gay man goes through, but it’s important to get through the psychological aspect of this closeted environment and free yourself of a lot of personal pressure. It just sets you free, and is a wonderful thing to do. It was a very spontaneous moment, I didn’t put any forethought to it, it was just something that slipped out while I was doing an MTV interview. It took a lot of the pressure off of myself. As far as backlash… there’s been absolutely no fallout from it. It hasn’t affected my record sales, or my show attendance.… For some people, it was the worst-kept secret, other people couldn’t care less. I think that people had to address their own phobic issues and realize that sexuality has nothing to do with the music.

Halford will perform on Tue., Oct. 24, 7 p.m., at The Trocadero, 10th and Arch Sts., 215-922-LIVE, www.trocaderotheatre.com, $17.50.