By "Metal" Tim Henderson

Kinda brings a tear to your eye. A band that we've lived with for nearly forty years is on their Epitaph tour. It's kinda this grey-area statement proclaiming that we are going to retire, but not now! No doubt a wise move as the band ages. But you know the creative juices are flowing. And live? C'mon, I was at Wacken and any normal human being could never give this gig up! That's why the K.K. Downing situation seems even more puzzling. But that's another tale. New axe Richie Faulkner has slid into the role more than admirably. BraveWords.com caught up with the 'metal god' Rob Halford this past weekend for an update from the road, paths the mighty Priest know well. But some of these roads may never be travelled again by this band. But the man on the Harley-Davidson is confident of the future; he doesn't want to quit, but he knows that we aren't physically immortal … the music is, but our bodily shell isn't! This Brit that holds his art in such high regard - like most of us do - may be our fave interview. We've chatted with the man for years and he has graced the cover of BW&BK; many, many times as part of the mighty Priest and his solo efforts. But all that has led to now, the open road in the US, just prior to venturing over the border north. Polite and well-spoken as always, Halford asks me about the biz and how we've weathered the storm in this changing business. It's a tough haul in the music biz for all of us I respond.

"It is," Halford states simply, but his power resonates. "We're making a point of acknowledging that. The economic climate is not in the best shape and we're thanking all of our fans for coming down and seeing us. We're giving them the biggest and longest Priest shows that we've done in a very long time. Normally the tour routing would look a lot better on a map! The economy has had an effect on touring, so we are going where we can go, picking the right venue and city. But we're out here on this massive world tour and it's an absolute blast and we're having a great time."

Prior to witnessing arguably Judas Priest's finest hour on the Epitaph tour, Germany's Wacken Open Air, I was convinced the band's stock price would fall with K.K.'s absence. Shockingly this hasn't been the case. Richie Faulkner's found a home with the metal gods and they've welcomed him with open arms.

"He is at home," Halford agrees. "Quite frankly, we said more than once that if we hadn't of found Richie and there wasn't anybody else on the horizon, this whole tour would've had to be cancelled until we found the right guy to do the work that needed to be done. Obviously K.K. is with us in spirit every night because the songs we play were written by Glenn and K.K. and myself. I suppose it's no different than when Tim ("Ripper" Owens) was holding the mic. You do your best to try and find someone that firstly is a hardcore Priest fan - which is what Richie is - and get up there and give it some welly (more effort) as we say in England. And do it with the same intensity and passion that Glenn and Ian, Scott and myself do every night after night. And we found all of those things in Richie Faulkner. He's just a firehouse isn't he? When you come see us again, he's even turned it up a notch! I don't know how he's done that but he has."

I mention to Halford my 'Turbo Lover' story from Wacken where the audience went wild for a song that in the '80s glammed the band up for good or bad! Time has been kind to the tune and album (Turbo) and the metal god says that's an example of the band's mystique.

"That's a very interesting point that you raise there," the singer ponders. "And I think this happens - not only too Priest - but a lot of bands who are fortunate enough to have been given a long career in rock n' roll by their fans that support them. We've all been fans of bands that have written a song or a record and you go 'I don't think too much of this - what's this all about.' And then as time has passed it on, you starting thinking, 'I quite like this now.' And that turns out to be the case with Turbo in general. There's some really cool stuff on there. Much like everything we do in Priest, when we play it live and when we play it loud, it just brings on a new character. You've got the volume, you've got the depth of the song itself and it sounds a lot stronger than it probably does on the record. Who knew that 'Turbo Lover and 'Painkiller' would be married together in the setlist. It's crazy, but we love it (laughs). I think that again reinforces that sense of self-belief that we've always had in Judas Priest. We love to write our metal and we absolutely love to make that strong connection that's determined by our ability. I don't think there's ever been a moment that we said 'we can't do this.' If we've all agreed as writers that 'yes, this is a great song, when are we going to release it?', then we will do that. And that's been the case. I remember when Painkiller came out, there was an element of people that were saying 'oh my god, this is too intense, what is this?' So you just don't know. You don't know what's going to be. You just have to believe in what you believe in. Do your best music and see what happens."

Although there appears to be a great vibe on stage and the band sound in fine spirits, there must be something deep down that doesn't feel quite right as this may be your final show in some markets/countries.

"Yeah, we try not to think about that. As we've already stated with BraveWords, this isn't the end of the band. We're just looking at the way realistically as we move on in our mortal lives to try and keep doing this as long as we can. As long as it's physically possible. Right now we're doing six shows in seven days. It's amazing! It's unbelievable that we are able to commit to that type of road work. But we do it because so many of our fans want to see us. And all the important pieces have to be kept in place that we'll do whatever we have to do. The last thing you want to do is - or the last thing you hope will never happen - is that you kind of get up one day and say 'I can't do this anymore. Physically it's too much.' So by cutting back on these long two-year journeys around the world, we're giving the band some extra life. We're still going to go out. For example, in one year we'll just go out and do the States and Canada. And then take a long break. Maybe the following year we'll just take care of Europe. But it is true that there will probably be some places on this tour that we won't be coming back to for various reasons. So we are urging everybody to come and see us without a doubt. It's important."

We've heard a tasty rumour that the Brits are keen on putting together their own Big 4 to celebrate the origin of metal. Of course Judas Priest would be part of the mix, but the reformed BLACK SABBATH, IRON MAIDEN and MOTÖRHEAD could also be part of this stellar bill. Is that something you would be open to?

"It's interesting that is. Firstly, I think the American one (METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX) is absolutely sensational. It's a really good idea. I haven't been in direct contact with anybody that is talking about this on a reality base. I've seen bits and pieces on the internet about it. It would be very interesting to see what the equivalent would be from other parts of the world. I think the Big 4 as it stands right now is just sensational. It's done very well and everybody is really excited about it and the fans love it. I'm sure it will keep on roaring ahead because with that type of tour you can take it around the planet. I will throw a question to you Tim. Who would be your Big 4?"

It's pretty obvious that it needs to be the Priest, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Motörhead. That's the creme de la creme. That would be a fans dream. Especially when bands aren't releasing as many studio albums. It's more fun to be on the road, they are making more money on tour. It's prestige and it just makes obvious sense.

"You know, I don't think it would be for the cash. It would be for the fun and the extraordinary event that it could be, to go and see something like that. You know what's been amazing as I've reflected on this tour, all of those bands that you've mentioned have a certain genetic age group (laughs). Isn't it amazing Tim - look at us all. We're still going out there. We're all bunches of guys in our 50s and 60s! Where's the new stuff? Who is going to carry it on. It's just remarkable. I read an article on the BBC the other day about the fact that the bulk of the recording industry and live performances are coming from acts that are moving on in life. It's just remarkable really."

And it could be a little troubling too.

"I suppose that it's just a reflection of the world and the way the music industry has changed. You and I have talked before about the fact that when bands like Priest started off, you had a label that was behind you for three, four or five releases to get you established. Now the young bands are having to sign 360 deals (a record company agrees to provide financial support for the artist and the artist agrees to give the company a percentage of all of their income). If they aren't meeting the figures on the first or second release it's 'see ya.' It's sad, because none of the musical talent is allowed to develop. The only way you become a better musician is to be able to keep playing and keep writing. We're in extraordinary times Tim that's for sure."

You must have a comment about this Black Sabbath reunion.

"Yeah, I kept going back to the Black Sabbath website with the countdown and the old logo. Everybody knew what was going to happen, but we didn't know exactly. Sabbath are a very unusual band in terms of character and make-up. You've got four very strong personalities. I suppose like most bands that have been together it's very fragile. It only takes one person to say the wrong thing and it can get all derailed. But yeah, the clock was counting down and I was just so excited for them. I mean it's common knowledge that I'm a huge Black Sabbath fan (check out footage from Ozzfest 2004 below when Ozzy fell ill and Halford grabbed the mic!). So to see it become official … I mean to look at the press conference and see everybody sitting there and talking. It was just fantastic news for me as a Black Sabbath fan as I'm sure it is for millions of fans around the world. It's especially exciting in their own country, to kick things off at Download. I'm excited to see where it goes."

Glenn has mentioned (in a BraveWords.com interview here) that the pair of you had a productive writing session earlier this year in the UK. So in 2012, it's quite possible we'll see brand new studio efforts from the Priest and Sabbath! Possibly a little competition in the air?

"Isn't that going to be great?! I think it will be fantastic to have a brand new Sabbath record and a brand new Priest record. Hopefully both coming out next year. Again, Glenn might have said this to you. This is unusual for us because he and I sat down together in January in the studio and we just worked and worked and worked for a number of weeks. We just got our heads down and wrote music from the heart. We didn't really talk much about what we were going to do, what direction we were going to take. We just went, 'let's do what we did at the beginning, let's play it from the heart and get the riffs down.' We've to come a point now that we've covered an extraordinary amount of landscape with our metal that we should just write and write and write and that's what we did. So we've got a ton of songs. Some of which we actually completed, because we were trying to find a way to release a few of the tracks. That was actually before we found Richie. Now that we found Richie, we want to go back in and rework the songs and see what input he can bring. In general, I think we are going to have a very strong, very simple, straight-forward classic Priest album. If you push me - and I can hear you push me - it's like a little bit of British Steel, a little bit of Painkiller, a little bit of Screaming For Vengeance. That's what I'm feeling. It's all fresh material, brand new. There's nothing from the past. It's all original riffs. It's shaping up to be a killer record. That's great to know that on this farewell tour, there's something new looming on the horizon."

Judas Priest's upcoming Canadian Epitaph dates include:

22 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
23 - Quebec City, QC - Colisee Pepsi Arena
24 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre

(Judas Priest live photos courtesy of Mark Wilkinson)