It’s official! On October 28, 2009 at 1:48 a.m. (EST), Cleveland, Ohio JUDAS PRIEST fan Jim Bartek finished listening to Priest’s Nostradamus from start-to-finish for the 500th straight day! His unique and unusual accomplishment has been covered in media outlets all around the world, including the NY Times, Rolling Stone Magazine, the Associated Press, the Howard Stern radio network, major commercial FM rock radio stations and morning shows across the country, to name just a few. Bartek also had a chance to meet all of the members of Judas Priest on July 14, 2009 during their summer tour stop in Cleveland.

Bartek plans to finally end the streak, much to the relief of his friends and family, sometime in November. A date will soon be set where friends, followers, supporters and Priest fans will gather for a party at a local drinking establishment in Cleveland with Bartek to share one final listen together.

Bartek shares his own personal thoughts and prophecies on the Nostradamus album and his listening streak:

“The time has come to put to rest one of the greatest, most exciting, and craziest times of my life. My listening streak of ‘Nostradamus’ will soon come to an end. October 28th marks the 500th consecutive day of at least one listen of Judas Priest’s epic ‘Nostradamus’ since its release in 2008. I would never in my life have thought anything like this could have ever happened, or could I have ever imagined doing something like this to begin with. It’s hard to believe it has been nearly a year and a half already. The time has flown by.

Nostradamus will go down as my favourite album of all time. I feel it is a masterful piece of work, with a story line that I thought was very easy to follow and understand. Priest gave an excellent overview of Nostradamus' life in a mere hour and 45 minutes. The music and the vocals, while not straight-on metal as standard Priest, still give an amazing metal performance into a very interesting subject.

The 'streak', as most people call it, has been exciting and the rewards have been plentiful. I never planned to do anything like this. It just developed and took on a life of its own after several early on air mentions by Bill Peters during his WJCU ‘Metal On Metal’ radio program. I listen to his show religiously every Friday night. He was taking a poll on what his listeners thought of the new album and I was one of the only ones who responded favourably out of the hundreds of listeners who participated. I told him I even liked it so much that I was listening to it every day in its entirety since the release date, which was a week earlier at the time. I would check in with him every week and he would always ask if the streak was still going. After just over a month, he interviewed me live on the radio to give his listeners my personal review on the album and talk about the streak. I then checked in every couple of weeks to give live updates. By this time, more people were starting to come around and warm up to the album and were intently following my streak. The national media picked up on the story and the rest is history.

All of the interviews, the news stories and people talking about it when I am out and about at local metal shows have just been overwhelming. The singer from the Metal Blade band RAVAGE came up to me after their Cleveland show and said ‘Hey, you’re the Nostradamus guy. It’s an honor to meet you and have you seen our show. We have all been following your streak in Boston.’ I was even spotted and asked about it recently at a Cleveland Browns football game! I never would have thought in a million years this would have been such a big thing. It is amazing all the worldwide attention it has generated.

Obviously the most exciting reward came when Judas Priest and their management took notice and invited me backstage before their show in July to meet and discuss ‘Nostradamus’ with them. This was the most exciting and memorable night of my life. A chance to meet my all-time favourite band was something I will never forget.

It is going to feel weird not hearing the record every day since it has been a part of my life for all this time. I can just see my dog (Clarence) looking at me the first few days without a listen wanting to know where his ‘Nostradamus’ is. I think he has enjoyed the streak as much as I have!

It has been an experience I will treasure. It has also been an experience that has been the craziest time of my life! I have to thank my friends and family, and all the people in the metal community for their support through this. The Metal On Metal radio show, the Classic Metal Show, all the radio stations, newspapers, magazines and hundreds of internet sites that wrote about it. This truly has been an experience I will never forget.

Last but not least, I would like to thank the metal gods themselves, Judas Priest, for releasing an album that made a huge impact on my life. Rob (Halford) told me to keep the streak going. You never know, I may change my mind and just cancel that party! Even if it does actually come to an end, it does not mean the ‘Nostradamus’ album will now be shelved. I at least see a couple of listens a week in my future as I still LOVE the record!”

Photo above: WJCU "Metal On Metal" DJ Bill Peters (left) with Jim 'Nostradamus' Bartek (right) moments before he went backstage to meet Judas Priest on July 14, 2009 in Cleveland at the Time-Warner Cable Amphitheater.