JUDAS PRIEST's ROB HALFORD On 'Defenders Of The Faith': 'The Fans Love That Record So Much'

Jeb Wright of Goldmine magazine recently conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford about the 30th anniversary of the band’s “Defenders Of The Faith” album. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Goldmine: “Defenders…” has a lot of anthems. PRIEST has always had a few anthems on each album, but on this one, most of the songs were anthems.

Halford: Yeah, I don’t know if that is particular to metal. I am just thinking about it as we’re talking, if that happens in any other kind of music. I think the anthem idea, whether it’s your countries “Stars And Stripes” or our “God Save The Queen”, it really unites everybody in the moment to something they truly love, they cherish and they believe in, whether it is your country, family, or your song, or your band. There is just a wonderful emotion that really speaks volumes through the song you’re listening to. In this case, it is that refrain, “We are defenders of the faith.” That’s all it is, “We are defenders of the faith” and it’s going around and around. It is a beautiful moment of what we strive to be in metal.

Goldmine: You’re one of my favorite metal lyricists of all time. I really like Geezer Butler of BLACK SABBATH as well, but I really like what you do. When you hit on something like “In the dead of night, love bites” do you realize how good that is?

Halford: It is not about a mosquito, that’s for sure, although I have my share of those in Miami! Thank you for saying those nice words. I love Geezer‘s words, as he is a tremendous lyricist. Another example of what make PRIEST a special band are these little mini-movies that we put into your head when you are singing the words along with the band. “The Sentinel”, for example, it says, “Along deserted avenues, the steam begins to rise,” and you’re immediately drawn into the visual. I’ve always felt that it is my role in PRIEST to have a message, whether it be of any great value, or if it is just entertaining. Because I am an avid book reader and I love movies, I just love every aspect of the arts… visually, I find them very stimulating as a lyricist. I had a blast on that record writing about vampires and sentinels and then jawbreakers.

Goldmine: As we look back at 30 years of “Defenders Of The Faith”, where do you think that fits into the history of the PRIEST catalog?

Halford: Looking through the rich history of the back catalog of PRIEST, I think it is important for many reasons. Mostly that it really reinforces everything that we’ve tried to be in PRIEST, as a classic heavy metal band, including all of the songs that we’ve talked about and I’ve described to you. It is vital for it to be recognized right now. The fans love that record so much. We played some of the songs [recently] in Brisbane and the Aussies were going mental for it. A lot of young metal fans were there as well. I was looking out into the crowd and there were a lot of metalheads in their teens going crazy for a record that was there long before they were. That, to me, is one of the heartwarming aspects of this album by PRIEST. Even though this record is 30 years old, it is still able to touch people all these years later, and I hope people will be doing that in the future as well.

Read the entire interview at Goldmine.