BW&BK;'s Mitch Lafon spoke to The Metal God, ROB HALFORD (JUDAS PRIEST) during the singer’s recent Canadian promo stomp talking about his new Metal God Entertainment company and his latest CD, Metal God Essentials Volume 1 (a Best Of compilation featuring tracks from his HALFORD solo days, his band project FIGHT and a few of new tracks). Here's Part III of the chat (click here for Part I, Part II) where Halford is speaking about the upcoming Judas Priest album, Nostradamus.

Mitch Lafon: Is it (Nostradamus) simply ‘themed’ around him or is it truly a concept album – where the first song leads into the second and the second into the third... Is it a sequential story?

Rob Halford: “To me a concept album is one plot... One idea and you embellish it with instrumentation and different messages. You basically got the man’s life and anybody can find out about the man’s life by reading a book or doing a Google search. It’s all there you know, so you’re essentially taking the elements of his life and making it connect to Metal.”

ML: How did Priest latch on to Nostradamus? You’ve got Ozzy latching on to Rasputin. So, why Nostradamus and not somebody else?

RH: “It would be very difficult to do a Metal version of Judy Garland (laughs). Although, I bet somebody will do that at some point. You just look at historical figures of importance and value. I’m sure Ozzy will do a fantastic job of Rasputin. Rasputin was the mad monk – how cool is that? And then you think of Ozzy and you think you’re crazy you know. So, I just think... Geoff Tate of QUEENSRŸCHE had the Operation: Mindcrime and if you look through rock ‘n roll history we’re not the first band to go into this arena. We’re all looking for something we haven’t done before and forever the fans of Priest have been calling for a concept album. Some people have asked if Painkiller was a concept album and it wasn’t. British Steel... No. Sad Wings of Destiny... No. So, this is a statement that this is a concept album about this figure and it’s just great subject matter and it lends itself to a Metal experience.”

ML: With Nostradamus being a concept album – will the stage show end up being ‘concept-y’ and will you perform the whole album? Will the set design be from ‘500 years ago’?

RH: “Yeah, it’s great because we can do anything. The possibilities are endless. You can go with a very straight forward presentation, you can try and create a stage environment that reflects his time of life or you can put it in the future context, but we haven’t really got to that stage yet. When you’re still tracking and things are changing all the time... It’s in a nebulous state of flux and you can’t really be definitive. When you finish the tracking and the mixing and you’re listening to it and you’ve digested all of that – then you can look at the physical interpretation of the stage performance. It’s great really because there’s multiple opportunities and anything could really take shape. That’s what we like do to in Priest – we don’t give ourselves set parameters ‘cause once you do that you miss out on something that’s outside the box.”

ML: Does that include musically? Metal seems to have certain parameters and once you get too orchestrated or... Are you going to go anywhere different musically with this or will it be straight on Metal?

RH: “I think the important value is that you’re able to interpret it on stage and you’ve got to be able to do that first.”

ML: So, there’s no rules. There is a freedom to do...

RH: “Yeah, you have to do that for any band. You got to be able to recreate your recording sessions and that’s what we’ve always achieved in Priest. Doesn’t matter how grandiose it becomes or how simple and direct it becomes. Whether it’s a five piece or beyond. You need to be able to walk out confidently and play the music. I think the fans’ belief in you is made more solid by ‘look they’re actually performing it on stage. They’re on stage performing this music’. You’ve got to do that first and look at the additives later.”

ML: When will it come out?

RH: “I don’t know really. You can’t really put a specific time line on it.”

ML: Are you hoping for this year?

RH: “I think the reality would be sometime next year... Just looking at what there’s left to do because of the scope of it. It’s not just ten to twelve different songs. It all has to be really really thought out properly and you can’t afford to let anything escape you because once it’s done and released – you can’t go back. It’s that ‘it’ll be ready when it’s ready’ vibe you know. We’re in that comfortable world now whereas years ago we were on strict time schedules where we had to get a record out at a specific time and we had to tour at a specific time. Now, we’re in a different place and it’ll take as long as it takes basically.”

ML: Must be nice not having the record company breathing down your neck saying ‘it’s time. Let’s go’.

RH: “It’s great with Sony BMG. Rob Stringer is the boss at the label and he’s a hard core Priest fan and he knows that we’re making something very special and he’s supporting us.”

ML: Let me ask you about record company pressure – when you did the album with songs like ‘Parental Guidance’ which are a little more poppy – was there a pressure from the label to be more BON JOVI-ish or more pretty or whatever or was it simply the music that came out from you at the time?

RH: “Again, there’s tremendous respect afforded to Priest by so many people and the Turbo record was just where we were at – at that particular moment in time.”

ML: So there never was an A&R; guy saying ‘c’mon guys we need a DEF LEPPARD flavored single’?

RH: “We’ve never done that. We’ve never done that and if anybody asked us to it we’d tell them to ‘fuck off and mind their own business’. We know what we do and we’re best at what we do and if you don’t like it – that’s just too bad. Obviously, it’s important to have a label believe in you and what you provide to them. As controversial as Turbo was – it was in the commercial sense a very successful record especially in America. It was huge in America and we brought in a lot of new fans. As it turned out – a lot of the fans turned on by the Turbo tour were also experiencing other tracks from the Priest records and we were opening them into other areas of the band’s music. Priest is a very unique animal. We can either rip your face off with Painkiller or we can take you to a beautiful ballad like ‘Angel’. A very simple and beautiful acoustic ballad. At the end of the day, I think a record company just wants something of value and substance. That’s what we’ve done and because we’ve had this incredible relationship with what was CBS, Columbia, Sony and now Sony BMG... we’ve had a zillion sales track record. Our back catalogue in Priest is just enormous. Everybody still wants to get a hold of Sin After Sin or British Steel or Stained Class. So, the label is basically like ‘we don’t have to do anything with Priest. They know what they’re doing. They have a hard-core fan base that are going to support them. So, we’re going to support them.’”

Watch for Part IV coming soon. For more details regarding the Metal God Essentials - Volume 1, click here.