One defining characteristic of Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford — aside from his voice which, at just past 60 years old, sounds a little gruff but otherwise as powerful as ever — is his completely congenial openness. Perhaps it’s an aftereffect of finally coming out of the closet on MTV in 1998. Or maybe he's just being cheeky. Regardless, the Metal God called from the road in advance of Judas Priest's November 30th stop in Tampa to discuss their “farewell tour,” alcoholism, and the likelihood a local radio host will help him realize a sexual fantasy.
I had a bunch of run-of-the-mill, hopefully insightful questions, and then I heard your interview on The Cowhead Show on 102.5 The Bone last week. So I think I'd be crazy to start the interview any other way… I wanna ask about the little person thing!
(Laughs) Well first of all, it's just so refreshing to work with a guy like Cowhead. And a lot of these "shock jocks" as they're called — are they still called that now?
Yeah, some of them are.
I think a lot of them are given a bad rap, because… Cowhead is a very smart man, very funny, and he's very respectful to all people from all walks of life. When we get on, we always kinda have fun with the sexual innuendo sides of things just because it's funny, his sense of timing, and god knows we all need a smile on our face. We just had a little bit of fun about fetishes (laughs). And one of my many fetishes is — besides jerking your chain, which I'm doing right now (laughs) is little people. And you know, I don't think I'm the only one who is fascinated by that type of scenario. Of course, the big question is will it or won’t it happen! (laughs) I guess I'll just have to wait and see.
Well I know he's very excited to try to set that up for you so I’m crossing my fingers (A) that it works out for you personally and (B) that I get to hear about it on the radio the following Monday.
Yeah, it's the first time I've ever had a date set up from a Cowhead.
One other question was inspired by that interview. You mentioned you’d been sober for about 25 years, but you’d seen the back of a police car more than once. What is the craziest thing you’ve done to get arrested?
It’s unfortunately some horrible DUI thing where you think you’re capable of driving home and you realize there are some red lights flashing in your rearview mirror and you get pulled over. And that’s very much a life lesson for a lot of people. So unfortunately, I can’t really lay claim to being arrested for doing something a little bit more rock and roll. I look back at those days and now it’s like “by the grace of god,” because driving drunk is an absolutely stupid thing to do. I remember one incident at a club I used to go to called Rockers in Phoenix, and there was a guy that used to hang out there that had this big ball python snake that he used to wrap around his shoulders like Alice Cooper. I had like three pitchers of beer and I said “Hey! Gimme that snake! Gimme that snake!” and he said, “No, Rob, you’re not having the snake.” So one night he actually gave me the snake. I put it around my neck, and of course being a ball python, what does it do? It goes into strangulation mode — and within seconds I’m on my knees writhing around on the floor of this club trying to get this snake from around my neck, slowly squeezing the life out of me. That’s one of the more humorous sides of getting drunk and doing stupid…
Well the humor side is important, but I'm certainly glad — and your fans are glad — that you're past that now. So… The "Epitaph" tour. The unfortunate phrase “farewell tour” was used when it was announced; and that name, of course, even implies some finality, but Priest isn’t going away. Care to clarify?
Yeah, that is absolutely true. We try as often as we can to get the message out through all of our friends in the press and media. Is there another word besides “farewell”? You can’t say “retired” because we’re not retiring, and you can’t really call it the “you are slowing down a bit tour.” You’ve gotta give it a little bit of something. We thought long and hard and “farewell” is really the way you can describe this particular world tour because we’re not going to do all these big world tours anymore. They’ve just become too difficult in many, many ways. The obvious one being that we’re not the spring chickens that we used to be. We’re the old turkey now (laughs), which I am! So there are some places in the world we can’t or won’t get back to… I don’t know where those places might be. But we’re urging all of our fans to try and see us on this tour in case that’s the case.