Halford proud to be a lyrical messenger

Rob Halford says he has always strived to deliver a “message” in his lyrics.

The Judas Priest frontman says he takes great pride in the words he writes and believes that helps the songs live on.

Discussing the 30th anniversary of classic Priest album Defenders Of The Faith, Halford tells Goldmine: “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.

“The fans love that record so much. We played some of the songs 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.”

Priest’s latest album was last year’s Redeemer Of Souls and Halford said in November that the band were already toying with ideas for the follow-up. They play next year’s Download festival and will head out on a European tour with support from Five Finger Death Punch.

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.