Former Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford takes it to the screen
By Robert Newton

“Out of all the great things I’ve been involved in in metal,” says kindly 56-year-old heavy metal titan Rob Halford, “[the group] Fight was the first really significant one I was involved in after Priest.”

Priest, of course, is Judas Priest, the metal band that exploded after Halford joined in 1973, launching a run that would result in sales of over 30 million records. Halford left in 1991 and went on to form Fight, taking with him Priest drummer Scott Travis. Fight’s sound was an “aggressive, powerful metal” as Halford terms it, a fusion of classic Priest and then-new thrash metal like Pantera. The group released two albums and an EP between 1993 and 1995, and now Halford’s label Metal God Entertainment has released the film War of Words: The Film on DVD.

“We had video cameras going all the time,” Halford explains, “and we edited together all the relevant pieces.” The result is a 20-minute documentary that captures the timbre of the time, plus a full live set that captures the intense energy of a Fight show.

Some may see calling his record label “Metal God” a bit vainglorious, but it’s not really like that at all.

“It’s really just an extension of the name the fans gave to me so many years ago,” he says humbly. “I always looked at it as a term of affection, and still do.”

Halford is aware, however, of the value of his name and his image, and is very active in the way he is marketed.

“If you cut through to the complete business aspect of what I do and take away all the emotion and look at it in terms of product,” he says, “then Rob Halford is a brand name, and I’m aware of that now more than ever.”

After an industrial musical experiment with Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor called 2wo in 1998 and a couple of solo albums, Halford rejoined Priest in 2003. The group is now at work recording a concept album based on the life of French prophet Nostradamus.

“Our manager, Bill Curbishley, who has been in the business a lot longer than I have, stopped in to visit while we were in Estonia on at the end of the Angel of Retribution tour [in 2005-6], just to say, ‘What’s next?’ over lunch one day. He threw out the idea of Nostradamus and said, ‘What do you think?’”

Considering that Curbishley is the guy who has looked after the careers of acts like Robert Plant and The Who (and claims a major hand in the success of The Who’s Tommy), Halford and Priest responded with an enthusiastic, “OK, then.”

“We’re going to pull out all the stops for the tour,” Halford says of their first-ever concept album, akin to Tommy or Pink Floyd’s The Wall. “It will mark the first time the band has every played any music release from beginning to end, so that will also be another new moment for us. And there will be more costume changes than Cher.”

If that sounds a little gay, don’t worry, because Halford doesn’t. He put to rest rampant rumors of his orientation by coming out publicly in 1998, and hasn’t regretted it a day since.

“Whenever I get a chance to speak about that part of my life, I value it,” the rocker states honestly. “It’s something you come to accept once you make the announcement, and I’m constantly reaffirming it.”

And so does Halford on stage, giving powerful, hair-curling two-hour shows that would lay out most guys half his age.

“You’d think that a band that’s been together for over three decades might pull in the reins,” he says. “No – we’re storming ahead. If I’m lucky, I’ll get to be on stage on my 60th birthday, which is where I’m supposed to be.”

And if we’re lucky, we’ll have floor seats.

Catch up with Rob Halford at www.RobHalford.com.