JUDAS PRIEST singer ROB HALFORD spoke with Aidin Vaziri from Sfgate.com recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Sfgate.com: You're playing a 30-year-old album on this tour. Has the backstage catering improved?

Halford: "Nothing's really changed. I think as far as venues and hotels and things like that at a certain point I think you just reach a plateau, and we reached ours some time ago. The most important part is when you walk out onstage and lay down some metal. Thirty years later, the songs are still fierce. We just get out there and blast through them."

Sfgate.com: How do you still hit all those high notes?

Halford: "Well, I can't hit all the notes. But my voice is an instrument, and you have to do what you can to take care of it. I quit smoking. I don't drink. I went through the whole rehab thing. I've been screaming my tits off for 38 years now, but it still works and it's in good shape."

Sfgate.com: Even though you wore S&M; gear for years and released albums like "Hell Bent for Leather," people were pretty surprised when you came out during a 1998 MTV interview. Were you surprised that they were surprised?

Halford: "From my own perspective, I never understood the significance. It was an unplanned moment. I was on TV and said, 'Speaking as a gay man.' I didn't realize until 48 hours later the firestorm it had created. It never crossed my mind that anyone would care because I'd already been accepted. That part of me is a nonissue. We are who we are. I'm still the same person."

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