Matt Wardlaw of Ultimate Classic Rock reports:
Judas Priest singer Rob Halford says work on his upcoming memoir is “underway.” He first revealed plans for the book nearly a year ago; he tells UCR fans can expect it to be an honest look back at his life.
“There’s no point in putting a book together if you don’t have full disclosure, in my opinion,” he says. “Since I’ve been clean and sober, I’ve probably been more honest and truthful about myself than I ever have been. You only get a chance to do it once and do it properly…”
…“I don’t want it to be an autobiography — I want it to be more of a memoir,” he explains. “It’s going to have a lot of things in there that you’re going to go, ‘Oh, I’m not really interested in that.’ You’re also going to go, ‘Oh my God, I never knew he did that.’ But it’s going to make you feel happy, it’s going to make you feel sad. It’s going to make you feel angry, it’s going to shock you. It’s going to have all of the things that I think have been in most people’s lives…”
Right now, he’s still basking in the glow of the positive reception to Firepower, Judas Priest’s 18th LP that came out in 2017. “With any album, you just don’t know what the reaction is going to be,” he says. “You just have to go in the studio with all of the right intentions and beliefs and work really, really hard to make it happen. We do that for every Priest album. I don’t know what it is — it was just that everything was right. Everything felt right. All of the pieces were in the right place. The writing that came from Glenn [Tipton] and Richie [Faulkner] and myself was just at a really strong level.”
Read more at Ultimate Classic Rock.
In recent Halford news, the Metal God’s forthcoming Christmas album, Celestial, will be released October 18th via Legacy Recordings.
Credited to Rob Halford with Family and Friends, the album mixes holiday classics with all-new compositions, and will appeal to lovers of traditional holiday music and headbangers alike.
To read all about this special release, and to watch a video for the song, Donner and Blitzen, please click here.
6 Responses
Given where these guys are in life, there have been a lot of these biographies lately. The two best we’re the ones by Dick Wagner and Bruce Dickinson ( 2 dicks ). No but honestly those guys told interesting stories without being formulaic. No more sex, drugs and rock n roll nonsense. Doesn’t work anymore. Tell us about Dave Holland. Tell us about the lawsuit and the guys that shot themselves listening to BETTER BY YOU, BETTER THAN ME. Halford is the best and by all accounts a decent guy. I want to read about the best. I think TURBO is awesome and I want to hear about it.
I would recommend Bob Daisley’s, For Facts Sake, and Noel Monk’s, Runnin’ with the Devil: A Backstage Pass to the Wild Times, Loud Rock, and the Down and Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen.
Michael, there’s a really good documentary out there about the subliminal message lawsuit, called “Dreamer Deceiver”. It’s pretty clear the deceivers are the mother of the boy who launched the lawsuit, who was in total denial over how messed up the family was (the daughter also attempted suicide, and she hated metal) and the evangelical preacher influencing the family.
Another deceiver is their lawyer, whose antics are depicted here: https://skepticalinquirer.org/1996/11/scientific_consensus_and_expert_testimony_lessons_from_the_judas_priest_trial/
In interviews, Rob said that that crazy lawsuit could have happened “only in America”, he’s actually right. The US is one of the few countries which gives its citizens a constitutional right to a jury trial. The kid’s lawyer was betting their tragedy would tug at the heartstrings of the jurors, and be taken in by pseudo-science of “subliminal messages”, which is why the plaintiffs thought they had a case.
Tyger,
I saw that documentary in the movie theater. I felt so bad when Rob had to sing on the stand, ridiculous.
D 🙂
They had a victim and they had a perpetrator but…where was the case? did they leave it in the office? I don’t how that ever got into court….”do it” do what? Rob said “do what? mow the lawn?” It would be funny except those people really got hurt and I feel for those mothers…I don’t feel anything but sympathy for them….
Just saw that documentary. I did not know what was worse, the holy roller mom, or the fans with the rifle. Sad what happened, and even sadder is that Priest had to go through it. It’s been awhile since the case, and I never saw what the kid looked like that survived. Wow, the guys who wrote that Preacher comic, made him a character. To me music empowers, songs like Suicide Solution, and Fade To Black, are taken out of context. I look forward to reading the Metal Gods’ book.