Rob Halford
It's a very empowering kind of music, heavy metal is.Collection: Music
I like Avenged Sevenfold and Five Finger Death Punch, with whom I did a single.Collection: Death
Music is there to get you through life's ups and downs, good times and not so good times.Collection: Music
'Defenders' seems to have a really gritty, hard, uncomplicated vibe about it. Somehow, we made everything sound stronger and more precise than on 'Screaming Vengeance' through Tom Allom's amazing mixing skills.Collection: Amazing
The battle goes on for me; as a gay man, I shall not be happy until I see equality across the board.Collection: Equality
If you go to the gym every day, it's not really good. Your muscles get fatigued. Your vocal cords are muscles - they get burned out, they get tired, so you've got to give them the chance to recover and repair during the night.Collection: Chance
Metal fans are just as compassionate and caring and tolerant as any other form of music fans are.Collection: Music
I think I'm still a lone wolf, internally. And I always will be.
Heavy metal is immortal, but we're not.
Heavy metal is always going to be there. At its core, it's all about a primitive connection we all need to keep in our lives.
I chew a special brand of gum that you can't get in America. It's British, and it's called Airwaves. It's a menthol eucalyptus gum that is a very soothing thing for me when I'm singing because I'm swallowing, and it also keeps my sinuses and general upper breathing clear. I've got to be able to hit these clear, clean notes.
As soon as I got my driver's license, I went crazy, and I got the Ford Cosworth, which was this limited edition street racing turbo. It was like this 200-miles-an-hour monster.
This overpowering relief of love conquering any kind of difficulty and hardship in life - that love is forever, even with people that we lost in the physical world.
We're a rock n' roll band. We play heavy metal music. And we want to give you a great time. That's basically how it all boils down.
We're all people. We all need to just try and find a way to love each other and accept each other and try and make the world a better place.
Don't put yourself on a pedestal. Because it's very easy for someone to knock you off.
I sing 'Nessun Dorma' when I warm up backstage.
Running away from something doesn't do anything except put distance.
When I write lyrics for Priest, I'm writing them for Priest. I'm not writing them for me.
'Firepower' is the eighteenth full-length studio album for Judas Priest. That's a lot of metal songs over the decades, and the writing process is always the same, really.
I was a huge Rick Astley and Bananarama fan.
You can't be dismissive of important things. You have to speak out, even if you don't get the results you would like to have.
I've been a huge fan of Gaga since she first burst on the scene. I just love everything that lady represents. First and foremost, her voice is extraordinary. I love her voice. She's an accomplished musician. She plays piano really well. She's just a great songwriter. And she's a beacon of hope for a lot of people in the world.
On their debut, Korn brought a new definition of metal that was a game changer.
The thing about gay people is that until we come out of the closet, we're always protecting other people: 'I can't do this, because it's gonna hurt so-and-so.' We're trying to live the lives of other people, and that's the worst thing you can do.
Criticism, maybe cynicism, is just rampant in music, in creativity. Everybody has a perception and a set of opinions based on what that piece of music is doing to them internally.
I was in several bands before I joined Judas Priest. Being in those early unknown bands were the stepping stones, really, so I learned a lot in those short few years jumping from one band to another.
I'm not an American citizen, but I live in this country and eventually want to become an American citizen because I love this country so much.
You have to let your musicians in your band be who they are.
I love people. I love being in a band. I love making music.
That's the life, really, isn't it? You write. You record. You play. And it never grows old.
I'm not a frugal person, but I find it difficult to be extravagant materially.
If I was a billionaire, I'd have a warehouse full of Ferrari and Lamborghini, but I'm not.
I didn't pass my driving test till I was 38!
I never tire of the drive from Phoenix to San Diego, and it is mostly desert, obviously, but you get different varieties of desert terrain.
We've always had this fantastic relationship with America.
I've often talked about metal being the underdog in rock n' roll music.
It's best to keep things as free and open as you can. It's good to have a template, but then you go back and dissect it and see where you can make improvements. That's pretty much been the case with every Priest song that's ever been written.
Some songs are dead easy, and others can be quite challenging. Other times, you just have to put it in the bin.
Making a record is an intimate experience. A good producer can get things out of you that you can't get out of yourself.
I love early blues like Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf. I listened to the way these people sang, and it was just beautiful - straight from the soul. That, for me, was an inspiration.
With 'Defenders,' we had some very barebones ideas, but the bulk of it came together very quickly over in Ibiza. The main thing I like about that record, looking back on it now, is the change in the texture of the production from 'Screaming For Vengeance.'
As far as putting a rating on music like you do movies, I can see the common sense in that.
I love all that kind of gothic Bram Stoker kind of thing. I love to get lost in that kind of escapism.
I think that essentially, since music was invented, it's basically reached out and touched every single kind of conceivable generation.
I just love to sing. It makes me feel great, so I'm gonna keep going.
The great thing about Priest, in all the years that we've been making heavy metal music, is that we've always kind of carried this metal flag, if you will - this beacon of hope that, no matter what you may be going through in life, there's always a sense of overcoming difficulties, a sense of winning, a sense of coming out on top.
We've always tried to convey these strong messages of strength and power and doing good in the world and, at the same time, to not be afraid to look at the difficulties that we experience.
Life is a beautiful thing, but a lot of it, it kind of replicates itself.
If you look at the history of the LGBTQ community, from my perspective growing up as I did in the U.K. in the '50s, there was just terrible, terrible discrimination, you know? It was extremely difficult to live your life as you should have been allowed to do.