Rob Halford Perfects the Metal God Brand Beyond Singing

Judas Priest's vocalist, Rob Halford, is known for his extraordinary vocal range and his solid reputation as one of the godfathers of heavy metal music. He has become known as the Metal God — a moniker fittingly adopted from a famous Judas Priest song and given to his business ventures and solo projects outside Priest, titled Metal God Entertainment. And Halford's Metal God Entertainment is now launching Metal God Apparel — creating rock and roll T-shirts that will appeal to just as many consumers outside the heavy metal circle. It is a cool collection, debuting thirteen T-shirts for both male and female rockers.

And for the Holiday season, Rob Halford will be releasing a solo CD, Winter Songs, in the first week of November. It is a disc of unique Christmas songs — some of the heaviest yuletide known to man. Two of the tracks — a neckbreaker named "Get Into The Spirit" and "We Three Kings" — is currently available for download at www.RobHalford.com.

Powerline A.D.: Rob, you've been a busy man lately.
Rob Halford: (laughs) Can you get me another hour in the day, please?
Powerline A.D.: I was just going to ask you, where do you find the time?
Rob Halford: I know, it's crazy, but isn't it great? Aren't people at my age supposed to be slowing down instead of speeding up? (laughs) That just goes to show you, I haven't lost any of the passion or energy for what I love to do.

Powerline A.D.: Do you find being an entrepreneur exciting? I mean, it's a pretty exciting thing, having your own apparel and having other different projects going on.
Rob Halford: It is, yeah, and I don't lay claim to all of that because a lot of it is by this wonderful team of people that I work with. There are very few of us that can get to where we get to without the support and the dedication of other people. That's certainly the case with my primary focus of work with Priest, of course. That's the band that leads in my life and always will. With my solo activities, it's all the great people who work over at the offices in Phoenix, and Marc Sasso, my designer for the apparel company in New York. It's all great, you know, everybody's connected and everybody has the same type of enthusiasm and confidence and all the optimistic things I seek from people.

Powerline A.D.: It can be challenging for a creative person to get into the business and legal side of things.
Rob Halford: More importantly now with all the constant stealing and thievery that surrounds us, sadly. You know, Gene (Simmons) was talking about the new KISS record the other day, saying that it's still very simple: you're stealing from people and that's illegal. And then the big debate starts and then we go back to Lars (of Metallica) and Napster and all this kind of thing, but it's still ongoing. So you need to protect yourself. You need to surround yourself by the right legal language. And before you know it you have an entrepreneur in your title as well, but it's important. I find myself more than ever to be at a wonderful point in my life. 58. I'm still a singer for one of the world's greatest metal bands with Priest. I've got my solo activities, my record company, the clothing line. So things are wonderful and I'm out having a blast.

Powerline A.D.: And it makes perfect sense for you to have your own apparel. You've always successfully connected fashion and image to music.
Rob Halford: Yeah, it is important. Again, a lot of people cite Priest as the inventors of the look and the sound of metal, and I think we'll take that, you know. It's an important part of what people know about the metal world. What I'm doing recently with this initial launch – with the tried and trusty t-shirts – is a step in that direction. I don't know where it will end up. We may just stay in this particular avenue but ... it's all based on the feedback. No matter what you do, in whatever career or business you run — if the support is there and the growth is there then your ideas start to move forward.

Powerline A.D.: I think it can create a buzz, especially with the fans. I can remember when I was a kid — and we were already into Priest - but we would go down to the newsstand to see what Rob Halford was wearing or what Priest was wearing. You know, the image created a buzz as well as the music.
Rob Halford: Those are... I was going to say those were the good old days. You know, the one thing I pride myself on is that I haven't turned into a cynical, bitter old man, which is very easy to become in rock n' roll. Just by virtue of living for fifty-eight years. But I don't feel that way, and the point that you raised... I know that it's just as important to the fans of new metal bands or whomever it may be. Nowadays, they don't have to go down to the corner newsstand. You just log onto to the internet and it's there for everybody to enjoy instantaneously. We live in a world of instant gratification, as you know, now. So the excitement and the buzz is to some extent more difficult to sustain, don't you think?

Powerline A.D.: Yeah, you know, Rob, you're right, because there was more of a mystery (to a band) back then. We couldn't log on and instantly see what Priest was doing. You didn't have a site, or blog, or twitter stuff... there was obviously none of that. We would basically pick up a magazine and see what you guys were up to, and that news might be a month or so old.
Rob Halford: Exactly, but you, like myself, have been determined not to be left behind, and you, like myself, have moved forward with technology and embraced the opportunity to — more than ever — getting your story out and your ideas out and your creativity out. Not only in your own local town, city or state or country but globally in an instant. We're connected 24/7 around the planet, and for a lot of us that's a double-edged sword obviously.

Powerline A.D.: Did you ever have it in the back of your mind to do your own apparel?
Rob Halford: No, I hadn't. To be perfectly honest it was out of ideas that started to be discussed when we launched Metal God Entertainment about a year ago – the platform for Metal God Entertainment. We are very slowly but methodically laying out this platform, providing projects that become real and go out into the world. At the moment – with the record company that goes through Metal God Entertainment – we've shown the ability to make really good quality product, and initially a lot of it has been on the reissues of the Halford and Fight stuff. But it was important just to let people see and feel and touch and go 'Yeah, well, Rob's doing it. He's talking about it, but here's the real thing. I'm holding it in Best Buy'... or wherever. So, that's great. It's all very real ambitions that are coming to life. And, so, just one of the things that came out of that about a year ago was 'What do we all feel about opportunities we can explore with clothing ideas' and we were like 'Do we want to?, is it worth it?, the economy sucks.' But we just said let's go ahead slowly and steadily and see what we could put together. And we just got excited when the designs and the ideas started to come forward, and we thought, 'C'mon, let's see what happens.' You never know what's going to happen with an idea until you lay it out to everybody. The initial feedback's been great. I just had a really crazy day in New York ... flew in and out of New York and had like 15 hours of intense grilling by people in the clothing industry and they were all very cool. They didn't kind of push me to one side. I think the fashion world is very much like the music industry — or film industry — something new is happening all the time. That's America. That's the dream. That's why I love this country. And even though we are going through the recession there is still light at the end of the tunnel. We haven't stopped. All the creative people haven't gone 'Let's forget everything. Let's just stop and wait til things turn around.' You can't do that. Everybody's working hard in all portions of life — whether you are in the auto industry that seems to be somewhat surviving or the record industry ... everybody's in a struggle together. But we all need to keep the ideas coming. So, that was the philosophy that we had with just moving ahead with Metal God Apparel.

Powerline A.D.: And the T-shirt images are pretty elaborate... almost like tattoos.
Rob Halford: It's funny you should say that because I was sitting down with a couple of these really cool Goth gals in New York and they go 'Hey, why don't you do some kind of designs by some of the tattoos that you wear?' And I go 'Isn't that a cool idea. Why didn't I think of that?' And they said, 'That would be really cool if you took some of your artwork and mingled it into a couple shirts.' So, with their idea that's what we might be doing for the next batch that come out in February at the Magic Show (convention for clothing and apparel) in Vegas. Marc Sasso is the main guy — the guy with all the brains and creativity — he's known me forever, comes to my shows, looks at what I do, reads the lyrics of the songs, listens to the music, and his brain starts putting together all these images.

Powerline A.D.: The press release for Metal God Apparel reads "Defining consumer fashions for today's rock and metal lifestyles" but you can be easily targeting people who don't know much about metal or Halford or Priest.
Rob Halford: Yeah, that's true. Again, talking to these two girls they said that particularly from the female perspective there's been this incredible revolution like Stephenie Myer in the Twilight series and vampire things. And all the chicks are getting really edgy, you know? With the blood and the skulls and the crossbones and the dragons and the demons, and they were saying 'Don't leave us out. This isn't just a male dominated thing here.' And that's really cool because I am really determined to even out the launch of this clothing by next February. But, yeah, I think the designs are edgy enough to where you don't need to be a metalhead. If you like to wear that kind of display, I think it says something about your personality. That's why I think in that press release I said that what we wear, defines us. How we dress up, how we go out on the town, go to a show, people look at you and get a little bit of an idea what makes you click and tick inside by what you're wearing.

Powerline A.D.: What about striking up an exclusive deal with a major department store like Target or WalMart?
Rob Halford: Yeah, that's what we're working on. Because we're in the 60-90 dollar range I've kind of pushed myself out of the Made in China WalMart. I know that's a big slap, but all of my stuff is made in America.

Powerline A.D.: But, you know, all the shirts that are currently in department stores — the ones that have rock design shirts — their quality is not that good.
Rob Halford: I'd love to see myself in Macy's. I'd love to myself in Nordstrom. I don't see why I shouldn't, but, again, you have to jump through the hoops, and we're doing what we need to do to get to that place. I need retail, so I'd love to find a place in that area, but again, it's very, very tough. Competition is cut-throat, so you just do what you do to try to get to a place that's important, so if I can find retail that would be a blessing.

Powerline A.D.: You commented on the price but if you look at concert shirts they are 30-40 dollars a pop ...
Rob Halford: And you wear them for six months and they shrink in the dryer.
Powerline A.D.: Exactly.
Rob Halford: I mean, it took us about eighteen months to get to the launch stage because you have to stick this material in machines and tear them up and shred them, dry them and run over them in a car, and all this crazy stuff. People demand quality and that's why we are in a slightly higher bracket because it's good stuff. You will get a lot of wear out of it. The more you pay for something, the better it is. That's the bottom line.

Powerline A.D.: Now, do you have a favorite shirt out of all of them?
Rob Halford: I love Pray For Rock & Roll (shown above), I don't know why (laughs). I think it's Freudian. Please pray for rock and roll. I don't know whether I'm thinking about illegal downloads or the quality of music today — which I think is amazing, the variety and the style. The music is just wonderful today, you know, in and outside of metal music. But I still always got that feeling: Please God, let something spectacular happen. I'm waiting for the next big gigantic moment, whatever that may or may not be. There are few bands that can do what U2 can do. You got U2. You got the Stones. And then on a different degree you got bands like AC/DC and KISS that can do these big venues. But what will be the next great big thing? Will there be a next great big thing? You're old enough to remember the days of the records that used to sell ten million a pop. If you get gold today you are a success. If you get a million today that's the equivalent of a 3-5 million record of the 80s. If you get a record that sold a million copies then I think it's fair to say that 2-3 million have been illegally downloaded. That's a fact. Sad.

Powerline A.D.: And back to speaking of new ideas, how did you come up with the idea for the Christmas CD? An interesting idea. You think about pairing metal with Christmas and you might think it's unusual — not as unusual as say Pat Boone doing "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" — but ...
Rob Halford: I always wanted to do it. The first tracks are basically to send a signal out to all the metal fans that this isn't gonna be light and wimpy. It's got a lot of depth. It's got a lot of beautiful moments. Big guitars. Big drums. Big vocal things going on. There are some nice lucid moments as well. I don't think it's that far removed from what I'm known for. But the main thing is the message, you know, just on a personal level. That time of year means a lot to me in a spiritual sense. I'm not pushing that side of me, but I think it's nice to display a part of me that is significant in terms of the messages within the music. Especially the traditional arrangements that have been covered. I know that there isn't that much of that type of experience around for people in my world to enjoy, so I'm hoping that whether you're a Halford fan or not, you might be interested in the treatment of these songs in this way.

Powerline A.D.: Did Priest ever think about doing this?
Rob Halford: No. And ... we never talked about it in Priest. And I don't know if we ever would or if we ever wouldn't. You know, Priest is this wonderful beast that is the Priest. I think you have to be careful with these kind of releases, especially in the message and the content. Because it's saying something quite important if you want to get deeply into it. I'd like to feel — more than anything – that this is a personal statement for me.

Powerline A.D.: It sounds natural. That's the important thing.
Rob Halford: Yeah. Exactly. If it sounds forced, if it sounds too in-your-face ... I don't want that. This isn't the record that has the need for that type of experience. I'll leave that to Priest, you know. Or leave that to my other solo activities. But it's a great record and these opening cuts that we displayed, they're not the full story. There are ten very, very different types of musical statements. But they all coalesce, they all come together. It's a great record. I played it like a million times, and I'm my worst critic. I'm tearing myself up all the time because that's what we do. At least that's what I think we all do. We're constantly critiquing ourselves. But I just love the flow of this record and each time I listen to it I feel great and I want to listen to it again. So I'm excited to get the feedback for the ten other tracks when they finally hit the airwaves and shelves.

Powerline A.D.: On the other side of the spectrum it was once rumored that you wanted to do a Black Metal album, with the guy from Emporer, is that true?
Rob Halford: Why not, you know?
Powerline A.D.: Yeah, I actually read that on Wikipedia, so I don't know if I trusted that or not.
Rob Halford: Checked Wikipedia and there were a couple things that needed to be adjusted, but the Wikipedia that you're reading now has been vetted by the eyes of the Metal God. But, yeah, you know, I love that kind of music. I love that kind of vibe. When will I get time to do it, I don't know. But I do want to do it eventually at some point.
Powerline A.D.: If you think about ... I only see it as singing about the subject of mythology. In America it's kind of touchy but...
Rob Halford: Yeah. I think again, it's the way it's displayed. And it's the way that it's perceived by certain genres. I mean, metal's been kicked in the teeth more than once by people who don't understand it.

Powerline A.D.: And there have been so many different genres of metal since it began.
Rob Halford: That's why I'm always excited by it. That's why I'm always thrilled to know what's coming next down the pipeline. If you put a list of heavy metal bands in Wikipedia, it will print out I don't know how many hundreds and hundreds of names. There's a section in Wikipedia of all these different sub-genres: classic metal, gothic metal, black metal, death metal, speed metal, thrash metal... it's fascinating to see all these different band names that you've never heard of. ... And what is rock and roll? What is it? Is it Chuck Berry or is it U2? And I think it's the same thing about Metal these days.

Powerline A.D.: So what's next for Rob Halford?
Rob Halford: I'll be having a day off in Tokyo. And then I'll be on-stage in Tokyo at the Loud Park Festival (Judas Priest will be headlining October 17th) with Megadeth, Arch Enemy, and a bunch of other great bands.
Powerline A.D.: You still love playing there after all these years, huh?
Rob Halford: Yeah. It's a fantastic place to visit. It's unique. It's like no other place in the world. Metal fans are the same all over the planet, but all of them have got their own special vibe and the Japanese definitely have something that's quite different. Looking forward to that. So I'll do that, come back and get ready for the launch of the Winter Songs.

Powerline A.D.: Any more acting? I remember watching the movie Spun and all of a sudden there you were.
Rob Halford: It was also a surprise to me. Out of the blue I get a call. But I don't know...
Powerline A.D.: You were believable as that clerk. What was it like working with Mickey Rourke? Was it intimidating? It's kind of like a young metal band opening up for Priest.
Rob Halford: You know what precedes him. Mickey Rourke's lived a very volatile life. But, as it is with a lot of us, we all build up this idea of what a person is going to be like. He was just the opposite. He was one of the nicest people I've ever met.
Powerline A.D.: Sure, but in the scene, he got kind of intense with you.
Rob Halford: Well, he told me in advance: 'These are my ideas. Are you cool?' And I said 'Mickey, you're the expert. You know, you do what you need to do to make it work.' He threw me around the room for a few hours til we got the take right, but it turned out really well. And I'm so excited for him because he's been through the meatgrinder, you know. And for him to come back with The Wrestler, and get ready with the next Iron Man movie, he deserves this recognition again.

Powerline A.D.: It's interesting how things change.
Rob Halford: Yes, that's life.

Interview by Pat Prince

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