JUDAS PRIEST .. Rob Halfordl

JUDAS PRIEST's Rob Halford, Richie Faulkner Talk Epitaph, 40th
Anniversary - "It's Not The End Of Touring; We Are Still Going To Be
Going Out There"




JUDAS PRIEST's Rob Halford and Richie Faulkner were recently featured by host Matthew O'Shaughnessy on WVOX.com's Metal Mayhem
show in New York as the band was gearing up for the highly regarded
release of their ground-breaking Epitaph DVD. O'Shaughnessy spoke with
the Metal Gods who are celebrating 40 years of screaming for vengeance
about the new DVD and much more as the band was in New York City
recently to promote Epitaph to the metal masses.







Matt O'Shaughnessy: Rob and Richie, the mighty Priest is
celebrating forty illustrious and monumental years with the high-profile
release of the Epitaph DVD/Blu - Ray, an incredible 23 - track live
concert filmed and recorded on the closing night of the bands final
world tour at London's legendary Hammersmith Apollo in May of 2012. All
Priest fans are in for a real headbanging treat which is an
understatement.



Rob Halford: "Yeah, it's another one of these great moments that you
think Priest has done just about everything and yet here we are with an
opportunity to put the band on the big silver screen - who knew, now
we're movie stars (laughter). It's just a real thrill for the band and
more importantly for the fans to see ourselves on that big monumental
cinema screen and then have the surround sound turned up to eleven
re-creating the metal show is going to be fantastic for the fans
especially!"






Matt O'Shaughnessy: The Epitaph DVD is over two hours of full
throttle Priest, but this really is not your last world tour, is it,
Metal God?



Rob Halford: "Well it's turned out not to be the final world tour;
what we tried to do as we suddenly got into gear again and especially
since Richie came onboard; we suddenly realized that now there were more
opportunities opening up. What was a final global world tour in the way
that we've been doing them for the past thirty odd years is just going
to change slightly. For example, we're going to do a European tour for
about a month or two months and then instead of jumping on a plane and
going straight to New York to start an American tour, we're just going
to pull back and put a bit of space to recharge our batteries and to be
able to keep that special feeling that Priest always wants to generate
when we go on stage. We have a big responsibility not only to ourselves
but to our fans that we don't drop the ball. And, so again, it's no
different than sports athletes; Michael Jordon wasn't going out on the
court as much when he was getting older. But when he went out he could
get it in the hoop. But it's not the end of touring. We are still going
to be going out there."



Matt O'Shaughnessy: You couldn't have picked a more prime venue to
film and record Epitaph, London's historic Hammersmith Apollo.



Rob Halford: "In the United States you have The Garden, Jones Beach
on Long Island and these wonderful places. You look for that type of
venue to again capture the metal magic. We were saying earlier on, we
never really thought about this. This was a pretty ballsy thing to do;
we've done all these shows around the world and traveled like a hundred
thousand miles, and you think it would have made sense to do it at the
front end of the tour but we left it to last moment, the very last show.
I think we were just looking for that special climax that an end of
tour date can give you. But when you do it in your home country in the
capitol in London at this very, very famous venue and you bring in the
cameras as well. We were just on fire that night. It was just a stellar
show for everybody!"



Matt O'Shaughnessy: Rob, you have eloquently stated about the
Epitaph DVD that, "It's definitely a reflection on all the wonderful
things we've been able to achieve. I think it's important for any
musician to kind of pause and reflect..."



Rob Halford: "As we got into the preparation for this tour, I think
we did start to think a little bit differently because most musicians
are focused on what you are doing now. In this respect we felt that it
was now time to do a celebration of the last forty years of Priest with a
lot of hard work from everybody - band, crew, label and management.
This DVD is like a documentary without people yapping on it. It's the
music speaking for itself. I think that's the best way when you are
trying to tell the life of a band. You can either do it like we are
chatting now. But the real essence of why you are here and what you do
is best displayed in your performance and that's what happens on
Epitaph."



Matt O'Shaughnessy: You masterfully included at least one song from
each of Judas Priest's fourteen classic albums ranging from 1974-2008.



Richie Faulkner: "Well, as a fan myself, I mean it's a benchmark in
the bands career. Obviously, it's a different lineup and I'm responsible
for that I suppose. As a Priest fan it's a must have release filmed at a
legendary venue. You've got bands in the past like IRON MAIDEN, THIN
LIZZY that all recorded at Hammersmith Apollo. A legendary venue, a
legendary band Judas Priest."



Rob Halford: "At the end of the day it's all for the fans. We've
said it a million times and we'll say it a million more times. It's for
the fans, the fans, the fans. Especially in metal; metal fans are the
best in the world for any band like Priest. You literally do feed off
their enthusiasm and off the energy that they throw back at you night
after night in the live format. And you certainly see that with the
British crowd; we had people flying in from all over the world for the
last show of the Epitaph tour which just shows you the dedication of the
fans you have in heavy metal. This is not only an opportunity for us as
a group to have a great time and check out all of the things that we've
tried to do with our music. But it's for the fans. And when you are
seeing the show, the show literally runs as you would see the Epitaph
tour. Once that camera starts rolling nothing stops. It's a fascinating
experience. There's no cutting back to the dressing room or to whatever.
It's as we are playing and there are no overdubs. This is legit and
this is straight from the band down onto the audio track. If you saw the
Epitaph tour, you are seeing it again but you are seeing also in a very
intimate way. When that camera zooms in on Richie's fingers and you can
see how he's playing those notes - that's a real treat. You're getting
really into the heart and soul of the bands performance."






Matt O'Shaughnessy: The fact that all of the material featured on
Epitaph stood next to each other - regardless of what era it was -
speaks volumes for the solidness of the catalogue.



Rob Halford: "It does and again it's a pride and joy to listen to
Rockarolla for the first time as I did in I don't know how many years.
To listen to 'Never Satisfied' again, 'Dying To Meet You', 'Cheater'.
And then go through every other one of our records and listen to all of
the songs; you tend to forget because there is so much of it. You just
feel really, really proud that you've got those experiences musically to
keep investigating. It really makes you think differently about the
band you're in because you don't do this often. You don't really deeply
reflect on the vault's of the material that you've got. And it's great
that a song like 'Never Satisfied' written in the early '70's can work
just as well with 'Judas Rising' from Angel Of Retribution or 'Prophecy'
from Nostradamus. From the early '70's-2008 and it all connects. That's
the magical thing we've discovered. In this respect, one minute your in
the '70's then the '90's, then your in the 2000's, then your back to
the '80's. It's really is flawless. That was just a great discovery."



Richie Faulkner: "I'd like to second that really. Again, you can
play songs from different decades. You can have 'Turbo Lover' next to
'The Sentinel' next to 'Victim Of Changes'. Whatever order you put it in
as long as it's in the dynamic of the show; they will stand up to each
other. I think that's a testament to the bands, as you said, either
foresight or whatever they were doing to do a song that was forty years
old back to back with a song from 2008."



Matt O'Shaughnessy: All Judas Priest fans can identify at some
period of their life with a particular Priest song...whether they were
in high school, college or on their wedding day or any day for that
matter. Your music was and is always timeless.



Rob Halford: "This definitely proves a point, Matt. We've been
saying that for as long as we can remember. When you look at Epitaph and
you listen to it and do all that cross-generational jumping around
musically from different decades. It really is an affirmation that your
music is still good from one place to the next. I'm glad you raised the
point about weddings and college and school because that's what music
does to you in your heart. When you're listening to Living After
Midnight from the 1980's and you were maybe dating somebody or on
vacation or whatever. These songs trigger memories. These songs really
become part of your life. That's the wonderful gift of music. That
really gets to the soul of the great wonderful thing that music is able
to do to each and every one of us."






Matt O'Shaughnessy: How did you narrow Epitaph down to the 23 Priest gems?



Rob Halford: "We all made lists of what we wanted to do; that was
the real challenge of trying to capture a little bit of something from
all of the fourteen studio albums. It was a joy and also a challenge to
us musically. We didn't shy away from some of these more in-depth songs.
It would have been easy to go 'oh, we'll just do the easy stuff, the
three minute tunes,' etc. We wanted to show you that this band is still
strongly supported and behind some of these big epic moments from our
records. We wanted to show we can still do this. And I think our fans
love that. That you can still do 'Painkiller' with same thrust as the
recording. That you can still do 'The Sentinel' with same kind of
attitude - the fans go nuts because my band can still deliver the
goods in that particular way."



Richie Faulkner: "What we thought was interesting as well was once
we got the set-list down; each song almost becomes it's own little
performance. So, you've got these little performances in a big
performance. They've got their own character and production. It's a
fantastic thing I think as Priest fan and obviously now being in the
band it's a great thing to see. "



Matt O'Shaughnessy: Judas Priest never cared about trends or
fashions and evolved musically on its own terms. A wonderful credit and
testimony to the band.



Rob Halford: "No, we never did, Matt. I remember when we were in
London recording around the punk and new wave era and suddenly everybody
rejected heavy metal in the UK. Everybody went 'it's over, it's over.'
And we said, 'no it ain't over!' We're still who we are and have our
fans who are never going to leave us. With that attitude I think that
was just a great example of the resilience of heavy metal music. We have
gone through trends and fashions and different styles of acceptance and
rejection and we don't really care about that. What we care about is
our music and the fans that support us globally. I think it was RONNIE
JAMES DIO who said heavy metal will never die. And that's an absolute
fact."



Richie Faulkner: "The great thing about Priest as well is every
album has it's own character and that they are always pushing the
envelope as far as sonic landscapes and different effects. They always
pushed the envelope into new territory and when you do that you are
always a leader. You're the one carving the niche so to speak."





Matt O'Shaughnessy: Metal God, Rob Halford, it's been 40 glorious
and illustrious headbanging years. Can you tell me that you will be
doing this when you are eighty?



Rob Halford: "I'm sixty-two this year so we haven't got too long to
wait (laughter). I'm really glad you brought this up, Matt. One of my
all-time heroes is WILLIE NELSON who as you know is celebrating his
80th year. God bless the man. Even somebody like TONY BENNETT, the great
crooner. These guys inspire me as a musician. Seventy is the new fifty.
Like heavy metal will never die - The Metal God will never die."



Matt O'Shaughnessy: What would you finally like to say to all Judas Priest fans who are going to enjoy Epitaph?



Rob Halford: "Thank you for looking after the band. You cannot do
this without your fans. So a big, big thank you to every Judas Priest
fan. Relive the moment and enjoy the DVD. We look forward to the next
time when we go out on stage and say. 'the Priest is back!'"