Rob Halford is Made of Metal

When asked to comment on the impending end to the reign of JUDAS PRIEST, Rob Halford had this to say:

Well, they do say that all good things come to an end and that's probably the case in this case. But I'm delighted that, of course, the Halford band is gonna be storming forward in the metal future, and that's gotta be good news.

So prepare yourself now.  If you need a regular dose of Mr. Halford when the final tour comes to a close, a HALFORD show will be the place to find it.  HALFORD had been dormant as a live band for seven years until they played San Francisco in July.  Now, after opening some dates for Ozzy, they come to the City of Devils for a headline gig at the Wiltern Friday night with two quality openers:  young thrashers WARBRINGER (the best band out of Ventura next to THE FUCKING WRATH), and Dave Lombardo's PHILM.  But I must admit, I've never hear HALFORD.  So I reached out to Professor Bunkum, our resident expert on all things Judas Priest who was even present when Mr. Halford was honored earlier this year at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards.  And here's his response:  

Like an idiot I haven’t heard them.  I was talking to a guy at a BBQ recently who said he saw Big Rob on an awards show and he thought . . . “dude, get off the stage…you’re gay. . . you’re against everything you stood for.”  I haven’t spent a lot of time putting together a coherent theory of what Halford stands for, but  I never really thought it had much to do with heterosexuality.   Reading “Jawbreaker” as a high school kid, I was pretty sure he stood for blow jobs.  I was right there with him on that conviction.  Thinking about it for the first time now, I’d say Halford stands for some mixture of being yourself; being fascinated with power, even though you know you come from the wrong side of the gene pool to ever have any; struggling as an individual against the ubiquitous “them;” and the financial realities of trying to make a living at the intersection of expression and commerce.  The first three of these are silly adolescent notions that keep people in their 40’s listening to the music of their youth.  The last one is so commonplace in the adult world that I want to stick a fork in my eye like that guy on “Blackout” or the Angry Samoans’ “Lights Out.”  Given that Halford doesn’t need the money or fame right now, he’s probably leaning more to the side of expression than commerce, which makes this worth checking out.

So not exactly what I was looking for, but the Professor has a point.  This project can't be about the money.  Sure, the album cover for Made Of Metal features a race car of the NASCAR variety, and the chorus of the first song is "Ready to fight and to make it all right, He's the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Taking the prize to dismiss and demise, He's the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world", making it entirely plausible that that this new record was put out to score some easy licensing money from ESPN.  But when you get past all of that you realize by about track six that with Dio gone, Halford is in fact now metal's undisputed vocal champion and he is still giving the fans what they want: pure, unadulterated metal. 

If you want to check out the show, Live Nation is letting us give away one pair of tickets to Friday's show.  To enter the contest, please send your full name to thecityofdevils@gmail.com and tell us in 50 words or less what Mr. Halford means to you.  You can also buy tickets by clicking on his photo below.  The winner will be notified tomorrow evening.  

Click Photo To Buy Tix (photo by Eddie Malluk)