JUDAS PRIEST Guitarist Glenn Tipton - "Nostradamus Was A Mysterious And Very Intriguing Character - He Inspired Us To Put This Work Together"
June 19, 2008, 15 years ago
The following story is courtesy of Mtv.com:
Concept albums seem to be all the rage these days, with bands as diverse as MASTODON and COHEED AND CAMBRIA churning out eccentric records that challenge listeners to actually pay attention and follow the story the music is trying to tell.
Releasing a concept LP has been something that venerated, leather-fancying heavy-metal outfit JUDAS PRIEST have wanted to check off their to-do list for some time now, but for years, the British band - fronted by Rob Halford - couldn't decide which topic, character or time period to tackle on tape.
"After the last album, [2005's] Angel of Retribution, we wanted to do something different," guitarist Glenn Tipton told MTV News. "We've never rested on our laurels and made the next album the same as the last but with different lyrics, which a lot of bands, I think, have fallen into the trap of doing, knowing they'll sell X amount of records per year. We really wanted to try doing a concept album, and we'd been talking about it for a while. Our manager, Bill Curbishley, suggested Nostradamus."After researching the life of the 16th-century French apothecary, a reputed prophet, the members of Priest started digging their manager's suggestion and decided they'd tell Nostradamus' life story on their next record. The appropriately titled Nostradamus just hit record stores.
"He was a very mystical character and came up with all these predictions, but he suffered tragedy in his life too," Tipton said. "He lost his wife and daughters to the plague, and then the Church came after him and exiled him from France. Then he found a new life and a new beginning. He was just a mysterious and very intriguing character, and he inspired us to put this work together."Read more here.
