George Varga Signonsandiego.com is reporting:

It's been nearly 30 years since JUDAS PRIEST's core members (singer Rob Halford, guitarists K.K. Downing, Glenn Tipton and bassist Ian Hill) performed all of the British Steel songs together (Scott Travis, the band's drummer and sole American, joined the group in 1990). Halford admits that it's only now, after nearly a month of performing the album live at shows, that he feels reconnected with British Steel as a whole.

"I was finding my way around it. Now, I'm immersed in it and it's an amazing feeling," he said. "When you listen to the opening line of the first track, 'Rapid Fire' - 'Pounding the world like a battering ram' - that just resonates in 2009. The power of the music and the message in the lyrics absolutely still connects."

As for the future, Halford, 58, plans to keep singing as long as the spirit (and his health) allow.

"If I lost my voice, it would be pointless," he said. "Fortunately, my voice is still doing the business, so I don't even think of retirement. Once you do, you start to decompress, and you can't do that in rock 'n' roll. You have to keep the fires burning. "I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do drugs. All I've got is my metal and I'm happy with it."

He may be a world-renowned heavy-metal singer, but Judas Priest's Rob Halford doesn't fit the stereotype. He collects paintings by such masters as Goya and Lichtenstein. His favorite singers include JANIS JOPLIN, blues pioneer BESSIE SMITH and opera legend LUCIANO PAVAROTTI, while MOZART, PUCCINI and RAVEL are among the composers whose music he most enjoys.

But the records that changed Halford's life are:

BILL HALEY & THE COMETS' 'Rock Around the Clock', LITTLE RICHARD's 'Tutti Frutti' and ELVIS PRESLEY's 'Blue Suede Shoes'.

Halford: "These were the first three records I got, when I was 10 or 11. When I heard them, they just electrified me. So, I think I had a good dose of what rock 'n' roll is all about, as far as the energy and excitement, and three very distinctive artists belting it out. Like Bessie Smith, Janis Joplin, ROBERT PLANT and Pavarotti, they all make spectacular use of their voices; they each have distinctive styles and it's all real."

Read the entire interview here.