Rob Halford isn’t worried about heavy metal’s future.
“It’s just this wonderful, wonderful renaissance going around, not only for Priest, but for metal in general, for bands that were there from the start,” the singer shared with Full Metal Jackie’s nationally syndicated radio show when asked what’s next for him and his bandmates.
He continued, “Our good friends Saxon, who we worked with recently in Europe — we were selling out places all over Europe because people not only are the fans of the band, but there are also people that were maybe on the outside looking and going, ‘I’ve gotta check this out. What is this happening now? Why is there such a buzz about these bands?’ And so we’re thriving on that, we’re thriving on that.”
“We’re so grateful and honored and humbled to be in this place all these years later and still have this thing called relevance,” Halford noted. “We’re a relevant heavy metal band that’s not living on their past glories. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But we’ve always felt that who we are and what we’re about is representative of what we’re doing and saying now.”
The vocalist also added, “So to have this glorious experience with [Priest’s latest album] ‘Invincible Shield’, and it’s not dissipating. There’s still tremendous love and interest for that particular album and this band. And so we’re just out there roaring away, giving you all of these moments from Priest right from the beginning of our metal lives to where we are right now with ‘Invincible Shield.’”
Halford also downplayed any worries about heavy metal’s decline in a chat with Classic Rock last month. He explained, “The European leg we did, they were going nuts in Europe for Priest, for ‘Invincible Shield.’”
He also discussed, “It’s worldwide, isn’t it, this renaissance of heavy metal, culturally – to the point where Gojira are at the Olympic Games. Everybody’s exploring everything metal. There’s this great vibe out there that everybody wants to check out all these different bands.”
Judas Priest is currently touring in the United States. Their next show is scheduled for October 13 in Reno, Nevada. Their last US concert will be in Dallas on October 26.