Legendary JUDAS PRIEST icons, singer Rob Halford and guitarist K.K. Downing spoke with Joel McIver from The Quietus recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

The Quietus: The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal was underway by the time British Steel was released. Did IRON MAIDEN make you feel that you’d better up your game?

Downing: "I’d never heard of Iron Maiden until we were just finishing the mixes on the record, and someone told me that they were going to support us on the subsequent tour. I said, ‘OK, fine’ and then they started to get mouthy in the press, saying they were going to blow the bollocks off Judas Priest and all this sort of stuff. I said, ‘I appreciate the attitude, like, but let’s fuck ’em off and get somebody who appreciates us!’ There was loads of bands who would have wanted that tour and appreciated it, and you just didn’t need those sorts of vibes before you go out. Anyway, they did it and it was fine. I’m glad that they emerged and became a force to be reckoned with, and gained their own identity, musically, visually and in every way possible. All credit to them: they’ve done a fantastic job to be ambassadors of British metal all around the world."

The Quietus: Did any booze and drugs play a part in the making of British Steel?

Halford: "Not really: my crazy years were around the Turbo time – that was full-on. My alcoholism and my drug-ism wasn’t interfering at that time. Had that been the case, British Steel would probably have turned out a different record. I had clarity in terms of being able to compose and being cognitive of choices and decisions and strong ideas – they were all in good nick. It’ll be 25 years [of sobriety] next year, which is a good feeling."

Downing: "I got most of that out of my system when I was a teenager, really, with the LSD and everything. You had to try everything back then, didn’t you? I can’t say I enjoyed acid, really."

The Quietus: Are the Priest band members still friends after all these years?

Halford: "None of us have any common denominators outside the band. We love each other to death, but it’s like going to work! People say, ‘You call that work?’ Well yeah, it is work. A lot of people just see the show or listen to the music, which is how it should be, but you try tagging along with us and see what we do. There’d be carcasses along the sidewalk! It’s fucking tough, and it don’t get any easier the older you get."

The Quietus: Are you in a position, financially, where you could retire?

Halford: "Yeah, and I think that’s another indication of why we do what we do. We’ve got the best band in the world: it would be different if the fans were falling away, but they’re not, they’re consistently there. You walk on stage now and you see these teenage metalheads banging their heads to Priest: out of all the young bands that these metalheads could relate to, they choose Judas Priest. That’s a tremendous honour that they’re giving you, so there’s a sense of responsibility."

Read the entire interview here.