Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. Today I am humbled and honored, to speak with one of my childhood idols, the Metal God himself, lead singer of Judas Priest, Fight, Two, Bullring Brummies, and his namesake band, Halford. Mr. Rob Halford, welcome.
Rob Halford: Hey, Mark. It’s good to speak to you, my friend, and a great opportunity to speak with everybody through Rock My Monkey.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. Now, I have to say I do feel a little bit like Wayne and Garth when they met Aerosmith. (Rob laughs) How is the work on the new Nostradamus metal opera going, and are you finished yet?
Rob Halford: Well, it’s coming along great, yeah. This has been a real live love first in Priest. We’ve been working hard on this next musical extravaganza for almost two years I think, now. And it’s been wonderful. It’s, how do you begin? I mean, like most bands, when you’re faced with a follow up release as we were with the great reaction that we had from our reunion release, Angel Of Retribution, the natural idea of things is to reconvene after a world tour, take a bit of time off, and then start making what we call a studio release. But suddenly after the blow, via our manager, Bill Curbishley, who looks after Pete and Roger from The Who, and Robert Plant from Zeppelin, he came over to Europe, to Russia, actually, towards the end of that Angel Of Retribution tour, and put forward this idea, and we just ran to it. We just thought it was an incredible opportunity for Priest to once again show that kind of aggressive determination that we’ve always had in everything that we’ve done in metal to bring something fresh and new in terms of an idea and a project plan to the metal world. So yeah, we’ve been working on it for a couple of years or more. We’re in the mixing stage now, Mark. We’re in those final moments. But it’s still very, very important, because a mix can quite easily make or break a situation. So we’re in that mad world of mixing and getting all the levels right, and all the engineering aspects of all of the enormous amounts of information that we’ve got stored, making sense of it all and making it sound wonderful. We’re on a good time plan for release sometime this year. We don’t have an exact release date just yet. We’re working along with our label, Sony BMG, to coordinate the best launch. For any band, for any major, global band, you need an enormous amount of setup, a huge team of people around the world, to give it the right kickoff, so to speak. So when we do get the official release date, we’ll more than likely post that on the Priest website. But yeah, we’re in those final moments, and we can’t wait to release it to the Priest fans around the world, and get back out on the road again touring, which is something that we’ve been looking forward to since we even came off. We love to get on the road and play our metal and get in front of our fans around the world.
Rock My Monkey: Now one of my favorite Judas Priest tracks of all time is the title cut from the Painkiller cd. I was kind of bummed that there wasn’t any full on assault track like that on Angel Of Retribution. Will there be any of that on Nostradamus, or will it stick to the more classic Judas Priest style that you had on Angel Of Retribution?
Rob Halford: Well, I think, you know, I think it’s always important to remember that the Priest in all of the years that we’ve been together, we’ve been very determined to give each record it’s own definition, and identity.
Rock My Monkey: Absolutely.
Rob Halford: As you know, we’re into double digits now since Rocka Rolla all the way through to Angel Of Retribution, all the hundreds and hundreds of songs that we’ve released, you know. I guess the other thing is in terms of what we try to stand for is that we really avoid repetition. And that’s an easy thing to fall into when you have a commercially successful record in terms of record sales and recognition, as Painkiller was for us. But, I mean, you listen to Angel Of Retribution, and I think it’s a very powerful, strong record, with a lot of the great elements that we all love about Judas Priest. So, you know, I think your feelings are one that would be expressed by millions of Priest fans around the world, you know. Everybody is very passionate about everything that we’ve ever done. There’s always an eagerness to maybe refocus on some of your favorite moments. But we just leave that there. It’s in the great breadth of things that we’ve achieved in that three decades plus of making heavy metal. We’re just excited now to be focused on the present endeavor of Nostradamus.
Rock My Monkey: You have the new Metal Essentials release, you have the K5 demos release, and of course now Nostradamus with Judas Priest. How will you balance all of that without anything colliding into the other.
Rob Halford: Yeah, it’s just trying to get the right time sequence, Mark. Obviously there has to be a separation. Since my return to Priest that’s where all of my focus and energy has been placed. But at the same time I’ve been able to grab a little bit of time on the side to launch this exciting company called Metal God Entertainment, and our own, at the moment, small record label, Metal God Records. As you said, we’ve just recently been through a cycle of release with Metal God Essentials, Volume 1, which was incredibly well received. The same with the follow up, the Fight movie, and War Of Words-Re-mastered, Remixed. And we have a number of other projects in the pipeline we want to release as of when we’ve got them ready. But you know, it’s much like we’ve all done. The new Priest, Glenn with his solo endeavors, the same with K.K. especially. We just wait for the opportunity that doesn’t really make any kind of clash or conflict. So we’re able to express ourselves in other dimensions, but at the same time stay very focused on the main deal, which is the Nostradamus release.
Rock My Monkey: When will we get a full Halford or Fight tour, or even a full cd of new material?
Rob Halford: Well, again, I have to take care of the main situation, which is the band that I love more than anything in the world, Judas Priest. As you know, I was away from that band for a very long time. It was just an absolute joy for me to be back in the band, back with my band mates who have been a part of my life. We’ve been a part of each other’s lives for over thirty years. And so, yeah, Nostradamus needs to be released, and a tour to support that moment has to take place first. I’m hoping at some point after that that we might be able to get out some fresh Halford material. We did put a couple of tracks on Metal God Essentials, Volume 1. "Forgotten Generation" and "Drop Out" were a couple of relatively new Halford tunes. That was just to send a signal that the Halford band, even though we’re all busy in our endeavors, in our own separate ways. Roy Z is always incredibly busy with different projects, as he’s Mike D our bass player. Metal Mike and Bobby, our drummer, are together with the Pain Museum project, and they’ve always done work with Sebastian Bach and some other people. So you know, at the end of the day we’re all working, we’re all making metal, and that’s the best thing for everybody.
Rock My Monkey: Now, on the DVD I hear that you chose not to have the song, "Vicious", because of pressure from Wal-Mart. Is this true, and is there an uncensored version fans can buy from your website?
Rob Halford: Well, this is an interesting situation to talk about, because of course, firstly, I have to say that I’ve always been a strong believer in this First Amendment thing in The States, you know, freedom of speech. And I’m against all forms of censorship. I think that guidelines are important, you know, with some kind of rating system for movies or video games, whatever. I think that’s just common sense. But equally you look at each position as it presents itself. The recording industry has been turned upside down, as you’re well aware, and I’m sure all of the listeners are aware in the recent years with the colossal way that the internet has really dramatically changed the recording industry in every aspect, from music videos, etcetera. And it’s increasingly difficult to find outlets for your music in the physical cd/DVD sense. So you’re limited more and more these days, and you have to look at some of the conditions that are set by what we call the ‘big box’ stores, whether it’s Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, whatever. And they have their own policies, and one of them is in reference to this particular track. So it would have been stupid for me to have turned my back on the opportunities for the fans to get this material from some of these places just over the situation of one song. So we made the necessary adjustments and of course, if you do want to pick up that particular track you can quite easily do that by going to HalfordMusic.com, which is a sub-site of RobHalford.com. So yeah, you know, it’s all about compromise. You don’t get anywhere in life without sitting down and discussing things through and coming to some kind of resolve. And I think I, I think what I did, and the people that work for me did a great job.
Rock My Monkey: Now, K5 was put out on the masters to keep the music secret before it was released, but we hear that there is a story behind how you came up with the title of K5, as well.
Rob Halford: Yeah, at the time take your mind back now, there was a terrible thing going on the valley in Phoenix, Arizona, where our offices are located. It was a guy called Keating who was involved in this terrible pension fund scandal, and many, many people lost their life savings. It was a terrible situation. I kind of picked up on that, not in a, how can I say? I didn’t want to insult the people that were involved in that, because it was a terrible condition that a lot of people went through. But, yeah, we were working in a little studio that was used by a lot of other people, and I didn’t want to put Rob Halford or whatever on the reel to reel tape, because that Keating scandal was all over the news for many, many months. I just go by that moniker for the time that we worked in the studio. And we didn’t really have a band name at the time, as well. We didn’t have the Fight name fully created. We put K5 on the box as Keating Five, and that kind of maybe averted somebody’s possibility of ‘Oh, it’s a Halford tape. Let’s check it out.’ You always protect what you do in the studio. That’s just the way we are as musicians. Especially when you’re creating, and you’re a long way off from the final moment. So that’s how we came up with K5 to put on the boxes. It did the trick. We thought, ‘Well, we’ve got these demos that we suddenly discovered in the archives.’ I thought, well, why don’t we just stick with that original idea that we had. Instead of calling them the Fight demos, let’s call them the K5 demos. Again, they’ve been incredibly well-received. It’s just a really cool moment for fans to investigate how songs go from their raw demo stage before they go into final production release.
Rock My Monkey: A good portion of the Halford band is actually backing up Sebastian Bach. When the Nostradamus cycle is over and you go back to doing Halford, who’s going to have to look for a new band? You, or Sebastian?
Rob Halford: (laughs) Well, he’s a good friend of mine. We’ve known each other forever. I think he’s just thrilled to be working with the great talents of Bobby and Metal Mike.
Rock My Monkey: Have you heard the Angel Down cd, and if so, what’s your favorite track?
Rob Halford: I haven’t heard it yet, no. No, I haven’t heard it. Metal Mike tells me it’s some great work. I’m sure I’ll get to listen to it eventually. No, I mean, that’ll just be settled and sorted when we come to that moment of working again live in the future.
Rock My Monkey: One thing that stood out to me the most with the K5 demos cd is that your vocals sound just as robust and powerful as they do with the full studio treatment, and I’ve seen singers that are about half your age that have their voices all blown out and torn to crap. How do you keep your vocals so strong after these years?
Rob Halford: I don’t know. It’s an absolute metal miracle. I don’t really dwell on it too much. I’m just grateful that I can do a lot of the things that I need to do. The thing about singing is that it’s part of your physical being, and there are certain ways and styles of singing music that can, as you say, can create problems. I guess just because maybe because I am a versatile metal singer, and I sing in many keys and many octaves that I’ve trained it in a specific way. Not that I ever sat down to ‘train the voice’. You can’t train a voice like this. It’s got a mind of it’s own. But yeah, I keep my fingers crossed. I don’t really do anything to take care of it. It’s much like an athlete in a certain way that, you know, when you’re actually working to get ready for road tours and five or six shows a week, you gradually build the strength into your voice. But a lot of it is it’s just inbuilt. It’s like a lead guitar player, drummer, whatever. You’ve got those abilities ready to go. You’re just like flicking a switch, really. And then you just, you go into the right mindset of making things happen. But that’s all acquired over an enormous amount of practice and performance. That’s really important. I always say, particularly to new bands, you can never get enough time in to either rehearse separately or together. That’s really where you learn your abilities. There are lots of things that singers can do that they don’t even know about until they really push themselves, or keep an open mind to what their voice can do. And then again, that’s determined by what kind of singer you might choose to be. Some singers particularly want to stay in a style and mode that’s perfect for them. Others want to just really let rip and go all over the place, which has always been mine, my perception on what a voice should try to do and be.
Rock My Monkey: I’m starting to think that I’m the only one on the planet that loved the Two, Voyeurs, cd, but is there any chance of you doing the ironic second release under the band name Two?
Rob Halford: Yeah, it’s been really interesting, Mark, because of course I didn’t really include much of that, well, any of that material on The Metal God Essentials, Volume 1. And then a lot of people, including the fans, were saying ‘Well, what about the Two record you worked with Reznor on?’ And I always responded, ‘Well, for the most part I think that release was overlooked, and it was kind of controversial because it didn’t really come from an area that I’m known for and recognized for.’ But I’ve been looking more into this possibility now, and so we recently found a lot of ADAT's with some of the original recordings that I did with Johnny Five and Bob Marlette up in Hollywood, whatever year that was that we were working together. And it’s interesting to listen to the way that the music changed, must like the K5, Fight demos. So, yeah, that’s just another idea that we have, and a thing in the pipeline that we would like to get out at some point. I’m considering releasing, re-releasing Two as a before and after type of situation, much like the Fight release.
Rock My Monkey: So there’ll be a remix with more of a raw, more of a raw remix as opposed to the Trent Reznor remix that was on the original?
Rob Halford: Yeah. I mean, I really valued the time I worked with Trent, because I’m a huge Nine Inch Nails fan, and a Skinny Puppy fan. And to work with Trent and Rave Ogilvie was a really cool thing to do, and I think they did great work. But I would like to give, again, the fans the opportunity to check out how our songs really can go from one place to the next. So yeah, as when we get ready to do all these things, we’ll stick them on RobHalford.com and I think there's another on the way.
Rock My Monkey: Awesome. Is there any truth at all to the rumors of an Iron Maiden/Judas Priest co-headlining tour?
Rob Halford: I don’t know. I think again this is just the passion of the metal community as we call it. A lot of people would love to see something like that happening. You know, I myself would think it would be a great thing. I can remember years ago when we were doing some of our tours of America that we did with Maiden and we had a great time. And of course both bands are significant more than ever in the history of heavy metal music. And so that’s just something I guess that the management and everybody else would have to discuss more than anything. But yeah, I think it would be really cool. I mean, I’ve always had a dream that one of my ultimate metal moments would be to have Black Sabbath, Priest and Maiden together on the same bill, and I think that would be just phenomenal. But you know, sometimes it take s a while for dreams to come true.
Rock My Monkey: Well, if that tour happens, please, I beg you-
Rob Halford: Get everybody to be there? (laughs)
Rock My Monkey: Play the White River Amphitheatre, because big, great tours like that, for some reason they always love to miss my area. We have a great venue. The staff there is really supportive of underground press like me. Please play the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn.
Rob Halford: We know that venue really well, and I’m pretty sure that Priest will be back up there when we go back out on the road this summer in America.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. Now, do you think that Judas Priest will ever be able to own the rights to Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings Of Destiny?
Rob Halford: I don’t know. That’s something that’s always been a bit of an irritant to us. Of course the story goes that we had those first two releases with that label, and we were growing, you know, especially after Sad Wings Of Destiny. There was an incredible amount of interest in the world, international level. Metal was still very new, you know, and we were getting rumblings in America, wanted to see us, and other parts of the world wanted to see us. The only way you can really do that is to get some economic assistance, which is what labels used to do, and to some extent still do today, to support whatever, paying the bills, getting the trucks, whatever, the lighting, the sound. And we just ended up banging of heads major discourse on that issue with that first label, so we moved over to CBS, which eventually went on to be Columbia, and now is Sony and Song/BMG. As a result of that we left all the contractual situation pretty much in a locked situation. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to get those two releases back in our own world. Is it important? I don’t know. Because as it is, I think it’s something that everybody in Priest has an opinion about.
Rock My Monkey: What’s next for Metal God Entertainment, and what do your fans have to look forward to in the next few months?
Subject : Well, as I said, we’re ramping up to look at the Two project, the Rock In Rio release that I did some years ago with Maiden in Brazil. We’ve been streaming some of that music on RobHalford.com. "Silent Screams" has become something of a classic for the band. To actually see the whole performance from that particular show on that incredible night in front of a quarter of a million metal maniacs in Rio was just phenomenal to experience. So we’ve got that in the pipeline. We’ve got to look at the second Fight release, A Small Deadly Space. We’re looking at a way to represent that. Beyond that, new Halford IV. So there’s stuff on the way. And as I said a moment ago, the best way to keep informed on all of these issues is to go to RobHalford.com.
Rock My Monkey: I’ve heard you say some really positive things about a somewhat local band called Three Inches Of Blood.
Rob Halford: Oh yeah! Right. Yeah.
Rock My Monkey: Is there any other new bands that have caught your attention?
Rob Halford: It’s just, it’s amazing isn’t it? I stay as connected as best I can with the internet. Friends are always sending me emails to check out this band and that band on MySpace. I always DVR Headbangers Ball on the TV each weekend and check that out. You know, all the local, national magazines, like Metal Maniacs, and Metal Edge and Terrorizer. All the classic rock magazines from Europe, Metal Hammer. I just devour it all. It’s just an enormous amount of choice out there. It’s fantastic. Looking back to where it began for me all those years ago in the early 70’s to see how metal has become so gigantic, and such an incredible part of the scene in the broad understanding of what rock and roll represents. It’s phenomenal. But yeah, I picked up on one of your local guys, Three Inches Of Blood, a while back, and I really like that band. There’s just something about them that connects with me. I think it’s just the way that they kind of have embraced some of what we call classic metal and made it into their own style with their own interpretation, and giving it their own identity. They’re a really cool band.
Rock My Monkey: I heard a rumor that Metal God Entertainment might be working with other artists other than yourself. Is this true, and how would a band get on this great label of yours?
Rob Halford: Like any company, you have to really show what you can do. And I think these initial launch things that we’ve had with Metal God Essentials and Fight and the other stuff we’ve got coming, when you look at the product, as it’s called, in the cold light of day, it looks great, it sounds great, it’s really defining itself as being real and out there and available. So we have to make sure we can do all of these things in the best possible way. And I think when we feel comfortable that we’ve got all of the pieces firmly in place then we can start asking for potential other metal acts and artists from America, and around the world, really, to submit their metal, you know? Their DVDs, CDs, whatever it might be. Give us a link to their websites. We’ll check it all out. So yeah, you know, we’re still new, we’re still young, we’re still fresh, we’re still figuring out a lot of things. Distribution, where we make our product, and so on and so forth. And I think when we get to the point where we can honestly say we’re ready, we’ll put the word out and start listening and looking. So again, RobHalford.com when that time comes along.
Rock My Monkey: To start wrapping up the interview, I have a few questions from some artists that post at the Rock My Monkey forums and are part of the Rock My Monkey family. Blake from Rock Ridge Recording Artists, Northwest Royale, asks about, you recently expressed admiration for Three Inches Of Blood, and we’ve actually talked about that a little bit, but have you actually gotten a chance to meet them at all?
Rob Halford: No, I haven’t, no, and I hope that’ll take place. We’re going to be touring this summer. I don’t know what festivals we might be doing, but if we are doing any and they’re on the same show, that would be great to shake hands and say hi to each other. But failing that, when we come up to the Seattle area I hope the guys stop by, and we can hang out and have a drink and talk metal and enjoy each other’s company.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. What’s your opinion of Melissa Cross’ DVD, The Zen Of Screaming?
Rob Halford: I’m not that familiar with it. What kind of thing is it? I’ve heard a little bit about it.
Rock My Monkey: She’s, she’s kind of-my personal opinion, I think she’s kind of the queen of-she’s like Ross Robinson got known as the guy that was behind the whole mall metal, Korn kind of thing. I think Melissa Cross is kind of the one behind what’s being called ‘metalcore’, kind of the watering down of metal, where it’s kind of a flat monotone growl as opposed to something that-you know, like you use all different kinds of voices, the low end, the high end, the middle. She kind of does a flat monotone growly kind of vocal and gets guys doing more of that type of screaming.
Rob Halford: Again, I think whatever any of us do in metal is useful to look at and listen to in terms of kind of, you know, things being a tutorial and everything. I think again it can be useful and convenient to get some kind of direction and some kind of idea of how you go about doing certain things as a singer. So it’s all good.
Rock My Monkey: A forum member known as Bonehead wants to know about your interest in the Black Metal Project, and if your interest is due to the musical style, or more the philosophy behind it?
Rob Halford: It’s a little bit of everything, really. Some of the philosophy of black metal doesn’t really stand well with me, in terms of my personal convictions. But having said that, I think, as we said earlier on in this interview, my ability to embrace everything without censorship is important to me. And I’ve always had a love of black metal since it was created. And people probably know about my connection with Ihsahn from Emperor, is a good mate of mine. And we’ve been talking off and on for quite a while now about the possibility of hooking up and doing one or two tunes together. And I’d love to do that. I might be rubbish. I don’t know. I could be absolutely crap. But ????? music ???. I don’t know. But you don’t know anything in life until you ever go and try to see what your abilities are.
Rock My Monkey: Absolutely.
Rob Halford: That to me is what life is all about. It’s trying to fulfill your dreams and ambitions. There’s nothing worse than being in a regretful situation. Like looking back on your life and saying ‘God, I wish I had tried this, and why didn’t I do that?’ You’ve really got to push yourself, try to make your dreams come true. So yeah. There’s a possibility that I’ll get the chance to do something like that. I would like to do it with Ihsahn because we know each other and it would be more comfortable for me. So yeah. I want to do it. I want to see what I can do.
Rock My Monkey: So this would be maybe, probably a new project as opposed to being a Halford thing?
Rob Halford: Yes, definitely.
Rock My Monkey: Do you have any thoughts concerning how Tim Owens got dismissed by Iced Earth to bring back the original vocalist in essentially the same way that Judas Priest let Tim go to allow you to return?
Rob Halford: Well, Tim first and foremost was and still is a huge Priest fan. And he’s a fantastic guy. He was as excited as the millions of Priest fans were around the world when the rumblings of a reunion were taking place, and he was the first to say ‘Rob needs to come back, Rob’s the singer for Priest. I’ve had a wonderful time living my dream with Priest after coming from a Priest tribute band to actually be in that band and front that band on a couple of records and world tours.’ He’s a very cool guy, very humble guy. He welcomed that moment to become real. Yeah, I mean, it is unfortunate that he’s just gone into the same cycle again. I think he’s resilient enough and realistic enough and determined enough not to let this interfere with his great career. He’s got his band Beyond Fear, and there you go, you know. I think when the opportunity came for him to do what he did for Iced Earth, he just ran to it because, again, he’s attached to that band and that style of music and performance. He’s a wonderful singer. I wish him all the best for the metal future.
Rock My Monkey: Personally as a fan I actually hope, prefer and hope that he focuses more on Beyond Fear now, because I think his material is stronger when he’s not trying to fill somebody else’s shoes, I think.
Rob Halford: Yeah. Maybe this might be the case now. But of course, we’ve all got opinions. I think just on the personal level, on the friendship level, I would hope that Tim has the opportunity to do that work, to stay with Beyond Fear, and to watch that band grow and develop.
Rock My Monkey: I got two more questions left. Chainsaw Max from French industrial band Dahlia Indaco asks what you think about Queens Of The Stone Age and how the collaboration on the Rated R album came to life.
Rob Halford: Just a really inventive, original band. I mean, they’ve been going through changes in recent times as well, haven’t they? But the opportunity for me to sing with them came out of me being in the same studio as they were working in, in Hollywood. I was working on the Halford record and they were next door. We just bumped into each other in the area where we just eat and drink and so forth. I found out that the guys are big fans of what I’ve done as a metal singer. And they had this song, and would I check it out, and any chance of me contributing? And when I heard it, I thought ‘Oh, this is just so cool I don’t want to miss out on it.’ So I stepped in and did the vocal work on that song. So yeah, they’re a really good band, and again they’re just unusual. They have a sound and style that’s really recognizable. Again, that reinforces another belief that I’ve had forever, which is that no matter what band you’re in, it’s really important to try to see what you can do and be in the music world as original and as unique as you can best make it. And that’s becoming increasingly difficult now because there’s such a vast wealth of talent in all forms of metal and rock. But you’ve really got to push yourself and try and get that sound, that particular definition that even though someone else might be doing it, you’re doing it in a way that pushes you ahead and gets you more recognized. And that’s easier said than done. You know, me waffling on about it there on the phone as I am today, but I think it’s an important ethic that you have to consider and think about.
Rock My Monkey: I do have one final question. Every year we do choose one final question that we ask every single artist that we talk to, from classic rock legends to the most extreme death metal bands. This year I’m asking people to tell me what they would do to save this music industry before it circles the drain for the last time. What would you change about how the music industry is done to save it from being the next horse and buggy?
Rob Halford: Well, I don’t see disaster looming on the horizon. I think that with the invention of the internet, which has been just as revolutionary as the invention of the telephone and television and all the other great things, things have to kind of get settled. You have to make sense of how you can utilize all of these great things that come along. We’re still in that phase. Slowly but surely we’ll make sense of it all. That’ll be the case. You know, 20/20 looking back, should’ve, could’ve, would’ve. I’ve never really felt that that’s important or relevant. I think that looking back has some good in it, in that if things didn’t quite go the way that you as a musician wanted it to because of mistakes that you made, or because of mistakes and difficulties that came about through the people that you work with, it’s just a case of well, you live and learn. But I don’t think there’s anything I really would want to change. I’ve been pretty open-minded to everything that’s come my way as a metal singer. And sure you get frustrated. When you want to kick down doors and stuff, and that’s a natural reaction to frustration, especially when you’re trying to progress as a musician. But you have to overcome that. You have to find a way of getting to the place that you want to get to, and that takes, that does take determination and discussion, and sometimes compromise. As long as you get to where you want to go to, that’s all that matters. So I’m pretty cool with everything. I’m not really that upset about things that have happened in the music industry. I mean, one of the things in the top of my list would have been illegal downloading, but that was just an actual side issue of what would happen. It’s when record players were made, dual cassette players were made. You could put a cassette in and make a copy for your friends and so on and so forth. It’s just a larger, amplified situation than what that was. And at the end of the day I think that true fans want to support their band and they want to be involved. The way you do that is looking after your band and getting official releases and official merchandise, whatever it might be. That would be on the top of my list in terms of recent difficulties, but overall I’ve been pretty happy with everything.
Rock My Monkey: In closing this interview anybody that’s listening to the audio version can go to RockMyMonkey.com for the full featured version with clickable links, readable text, and many more wonderful features. I’m asking people to click on the album cover above and below this interview to purchase K5: The War Of Words Demo from Rob Halford. I do hope to see you on tour in the Northwest sometime soon. Thank you very much for your time.
Rob Halford: Thank you, Mark. It’s been a pleasure. And thank you everybody out there that’s been listening. Keep the metal alive, and we’ll see you on the road sometime this year.
