Esquire has issued a new interview with Judas Priest frontman, Rob Halford, who discusses the band's new Redeemer Of Souls album, American Idol, and his desire to be on The Walking Dead. An excerpt follows:

Q: Is Judas Priest still relevant, and if so, why?

A: "I think you have to really find yourself, as a musician, from record to record. You've probably heard a lot of people say, "You're only as good as the last thing you did." I think there's some truth in that. This is our 17th record, 50 million records later, but we still feel as - I was going to say incomplete, but that's not the right word. You're searching, you're constantly searching for the next thing you're trying to achieve, and I think that your relevance comes from being able to prove your ability. Then your relevance connects to the people who support you, your fans, but it also goes through the cobweb of the music industry, so you're touching other bands who consider your relevance or managers who consider your relevance, or the labels that consider your relevance. So it's a very intertwined situation. So I think after all of that you decide you're relevant for lots of different things. My relevance as a singer in a heavy metal band is based around purely what I'm doing with this new release, Redeemer Of Souls."

 

 

Q: How do you think it compares to the other albums? Do you compare it?

A: "One of the things I really love about Priest is the trail of music that we've left behind us is a very strong one. You've heard the expression about music being timeless? I think that's certainly the case. We were doing a track from Rocka Rolla on the Epitaph tour that was written back in the '70s and it was still working in 2012. So each record has its place, in the history of Priest. It all kind of creates this metal trail, if you will. But I don't compare it. I don't compare it to anything. I think that can be a little bit dangerous, you know? You should be sufficiently pleased with the last thing you did to leave it at that place, so when you're doing what you do now, you don't use it as a reference point. I think that can derail you."

Read more at Esquire.com.

Judas Priest's new studio album, Redeemer Of Souls, entered the charts in the US and Canada, in Top 10 positions in both countries! In the US, Redeemer Of Souls lands at #6 on the Billboard 200, selling approximately 32,000 copies in it's first week out. The album is the band's 17th studio effort, and first since 2008's Nostradamus, which topped out at #11. In Canada, Redeemer Of Souls enters the album charts at #5. More global chart entries will be revealed soon. Read BraveWords' review of Redeemer Of Souls at this location.