Judas Priest’s Rob Halford calls heavy metal “a young musical force” in 1984

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 25, 1984

By Steve Newton

With their last two albums reaching platinum status (over one million copies sold), Judas Priest is one of the world’s most popular heavy metal acts.

The band’s steel-throated singer, Rob Halford, phoned me from Portland, Oregon recently and elaborated on their new management, new album, and the state of metal in ’84.

How’s the tour going?

Very, very good indeed, Steve. We’ve been having a series of lethal shows across the States since we began in March. We started up in Niagara Falls ’round about the middle of March, and we’ve been working fairly consistently up until this present time.

I understand you’re now being managed by Bill Curbishley.

Yes. Bill Curbishley is firmly at the helm now. For the first time in our career it feels like we’ve got a good manager at the controls. Management is a very weird thing to get involved in, you know.

I heard that you were talking to Bruce Allen in Vancouver.

Yeah, Bruce was one of the many contenders that came along when our management left us. We were left in the middle of the lurch of the Screaming for Vengeance tour last year, and spent a good half of that tour managing our own affairs as we went along, day to day, which nearly drove us mad.

But we managed to get through it all, because we simply didn’t want to rush into the next management situation, you know. And Bruce was one of several different people that came forward and that we met and had discussions with.

Bill Curbishley used to look after the Who, didn’t he?

He still does, yeah. Although they are of course semi-retired, he’s still actively involved in their solo pursuits. But we were quite flattered to find out that we were the only band that he said he would ever consider approaching to manage on any level. So his first official engagement with the band was at the US Festival.

How did that go anyway?

Oh that was tremendous; we had an incredible day. I guess as much as everyone else did on the Heavy Metal Day there, you know. It was a remarkable experience, to say the least. We had a wonderful time.

Did you guys get a chance to check out any of the other acts that were playing that day?

Well most of the other acts we know well anyway. I mean we’ve either seen them or they’ve worked with us over the years. The thing about that particular show was that we just flew straight in and flew straight out, you know, we didn’t hang around. It was one of those things where there was so much going on, it was like a circus zoo backstage, you know. So we just decided to go in and do the show and go out, and that was it. 

I heard it was a pretty well-run operation.

It was very well run–apart from all the so-called quotes on the money that the guy lost, as an operation, as an event in terms of administration and so forth, it went very very smoothly indeed. Surprised us all.

And right after the US Festival you started work on the Defenders of the Faith album?

Yes. In fact, the day after we flew to Ibiza, which is that small island off the coast of Spain where we recorded Screaming for Vengeance and Point of Entry. We went back there to start work on Defenders of the Faith.

Did it take a long time to make the new record?

Well, we had such a successful year with Screaming for Vengeance over here that we didn’t want to go in there like a bullet and come out with a rushed album. So Curbishley told us to go in there and spend as much time as we felt was necessary to come up with the goods to match and to follow Screaming for Vengeance.

And so we probably spent more time recording this album than we’d ever done in the past, but I think for all the time and money that went into it, it turned out to be more than a good followup album. We were very very thrilled with the end thing, you know.

It’s doing pretty good is it?

It’s doing very well for us, yes. It’s very close to the platinum mark, which we’d hoped to achieve by this time, before we take the break after this first leg of the tour, as we call it. And we’re very happy with the way things are going for it right now, very excited about the potential through the summer months.

What’s your personal favourite tune on Defenders?

Uh, I’m too close to it at the moment, Steve. I mean I like it so much from start to finish, there’s no one particular song that I could quite honestly focus in upon.

I think my favourite is “Freewheel Burning”.

You like that one do ya? Well I’ve got a certain affection for that because it’s very much in the mold of Priest in terms of comparing it to things like the early stuff like “Tyrant”, and then things like “Rapid Fire” or “Steeler” off British Steel, or “Exciter”. It’s got that Priest stamp all over it; it’s like a hard-paced, high-energy song. That’s a good song; it’s going over well on the tour.

Is there a video for that tune?

Yeah, we made a video. That was the first video we made for this particular album, although recently we completed the video for “Love Bites”, which is the current single that’s being aired at the moment in various places.

I really liked that video for “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'”.

We had a ball doing that. It that was partially responsible for the success of Screaming for Vengeance. It was well received and well played, and was a big single for us in the U.S.

I thought it was hilarious when the guy’s pants fell down.

[Laughs] Well, of course that was an added bonus. The reason that happened was because the technical experts that were responsible for blowing the dummy’s head off had been hanging around the set locations for a good eight hours, and they were more than looking forward to letting us see what they could do.

But they rather packed too much plastic explosive, with the result that not only the head blew up but the pants fell down as well, you know. But I think that gave the video a little side of humour and credibility. I think if that hadn’t of happened it would have been a little bit violent, you know. But we’ve always tried to place a smile or two in our videos.

In that song you sing, “I’m on top as long as long as the music’s loud.” But what if the music isn’t loud? Like, if heavy metal dies out?

I don’t think that’s ever gonna happen Steve, quite honestly. I think that it’s still very much a young musical force. I mean, this music only goes back about 12 or 15 years. So as a music I think it’s still very young.

And what we’re seeing right now of course is a total resurgence and acceptance for heavy metal music, in a very, very big way. I think the strength of any music’s ability to maintain itself is based on its audience, and I think heavy metal audiences are one of the most dedicated that you could ever wish to be involved with.

We have people that have been with Priest right from the early days. They’re consistently showing up at our shows and buying our records. And of course we have a new element of people that are visiting us on this particular tour–very young people who are getting involved with heavy metal for the first time. So I’m sure that they’ll be carrying the flag long after we’ve been declared too old to rock and roll, you know.

I’m a metal fan myself, but I wanted to play the devil’s advocate a bit here. Heavy metal is undoubtedly an aggressive form of music, but isn’t there enough aggression in the world already?

I think there’s more than enough aggression in the world already, ummm, but unfortunately there’s nothing I can do about that–or for that matter, nothing any man on the street can do about that. Most of the aggression that takes place at the moment is reasonably uncontrolled by people that are either out there for deliberate criminal tendencies, or politically or governmentally backed ideals. But we won’t go into that.

But as far as heavy metal is concerned, I think that it’s no more aggressive or riotous or rebellious than rock and roll has been over the years, since it first began. It depends what form of aggression you’re talking about.

I’m talking more of the leather and studs aspect.

The image side of it? Yeah, well I would agree to a certain extent that the aggression comes from the stage. I mean, it is a very powerful, larger-than-life form of music.

But I don’t think it’s ever been there to the extent of creating worry or concern. Because, for the most part, those people that do come to heavy metal shows, their perception of aggression is different than someone on the outside with a suit and tie.