talk is a loading up on the rock and roll today it's a cdc power up release day and combine that with the metal god rob halford as our guest and of course as the triple whammy the rock and roll hall of famer duff macaggan and the joke of the week let's check that out now christian decadent and
i saw guy straight in the against that you had a trolley full of up horseshoes rabbit speed forty clover up the hill and straight in the car i thought of myself wow that guy really pushing his luck thank you very much goodbye be safe where math goodbye that's a good one
they can only come from the mind of duff macaggan or maybe actual rose as a duff said he didn't actually exchange these jokes and like i mentioned it's all about the rock and roll and talk is jerry code today we already heard from duff it's a cdc release day power up and the metal god rob
halford is here telling some stories about his new auto bar if you confess you hear me say it it's a great read i finished the book in less than two days you won't be able to put it down rob's talking about his early days in juteus priest what it was like to live this secret double life
in the closet as a game and what happened when he finally came out to his band and his fans he also shares what it was really going on behind the scenes when he left the band what eventually brought them back together he talks about filling in for Aussie with black Sabbath
and preparing for those shows on multiple occasions and of course we talk about the great adi van hailing rob remembers the first time he heard van hailing's music what it was like to be on the s festival bill with them so many incredible stories coming up from rob halford
but first the winner payers davis bit back and ryebo make a special appearance to celebrate the release of the brand new acdc studio album power up let's bring on the winner payers all right so it's a big day here something that we very much needed is crazy 2020 which is a brand new acdc record
obviously possibly the greatest rock and roll band of all time put it out the first record in six years and it couldn't be a better time for it so i thought what a great way to talk about the new record power up then to have on the winner payers
we got davis bit back and ryebo and we're going to do a little game where i read out some lyrics and whoever knows the answer to the lyrics shout out gai kou and then they say what the name of the song is and whoever loses has to buy the other to a copy of the new acdc record
power up is that song i can deal you guys that's a deal ryebo already ordered it exactly for you as a present for me that's just me jinksing myself ryebo will win now but we're all dc fans here some higher levels than others but i think if anything just the fact that acdc is releasing a new record is very very exciting for anybody that likes rock and roll yeah absolutely it's a big thing for sure for all of us so um you ready ryebo? i guess so sure who is actual seeing on this new one or no?
no it's prion janssen brion janssen's back the fill rod is back so it's basically the classic lineup with the exception of steve young on uh... on guitar his melcom passed away but not all of these are melcom's riffs that he and angus wrote before he passed away that angus
compiled from various tapes at the head left over oh that's pretty cool yeah so basically is it basically is the classic lineup and it's also the lineup that we saw play in winnipeg i think it was 1988 when white lion opened for acdc
and this is when melcom was in the rehabs that had steve playing with them then that was the blow up your video that's the one yep yeah i remember that right yeah middle of winter i remember uh... carlin maraz was telling how she knew it wasn't melcom young because he had wavy hair and why was it talking to carlin maraz?
i have no idea right wow i can't kill that with him here we go so so when you guys if you guys know the answer you say geico and then you give the answer so the first lyric is she gave you the clean geico i go the jack nice good one Dave thank you very much alright here goes
i'm dirty mean mighty unclean i'm a wanted man geico what's your rival uh... dirty deeds done dirty no i'm dirty mean mighty and clean man public enemy problem child geico problem child geico tnt oh god all right all right rival take note of this one pick up the phone i'm here alone
or make a soul guy go geico dirty deeds i will set it first he didn't say geico first but i'll give it to him that's probably the only way i'm gonna get um no stop signs speed limit nobody's gonna slow me down i go high way to hell nice i like Dave's face and super getting into this
i should have had tnt yeah we're gonna play the dekeven bacon game after this which Dave still hasn't figured out what to do okay you drank all your booze and half of mine i'm bleary eyed and you're waiting for the sunshine to come and kill me oh geico carry me home that's the song carry me home
geico carry me home it's from a very obscure i think it was a release to the single easy come easy go have a good time with lots of dough slipping up high slipping down low lovingly of them on with the show that's total bond scop i don't know what that is i thought that was
geico sink the pink for some reason but that's brian isn't it that it could be okay sink the pink all right hmm the lightning rod strike at hot it's gonna hit you like the rush more rock geico uh hard as a rock wow my mind raised and i thought what could i do
and i knew there was no help no help from you and all you got to think of is what can i do oh it's uh that was god oh uh geico thunder struck got it oh stay stay out she's in the chat it was carry me home it was a b-side how did you get that Dave because i'm hanging out with
fellows in ban horn i think wow yeah that's a good call on carry me home Dave uh either rival has no idea what any song is or he's frozen i'm not sure which one it is i actually think he's frozen oh are you there rival rival taxa means computers really get so easy i yes it had a chance
he has it had a fair shape in this game oh god that's it looks like the two of us will continue can you hear we can hear you let me guess you got them all right but we couldn't hear you right yeah all right so the last one is blasted on the radio breaking on the tv show send it out on all the wires
and if i didn't know any better your mission is to party till the broad daylight geico shot in the dark oh good good call yeah yeah so okay so that uh that that's uh that that's uh that's the game so i think stace is going to tally up who won and because rival uh froze everyone either either rival froze or acdc has a song called rival froze Dave won and rival froze and lost so that's the there you have it there you have it there he is hello sir how are you Rob?
hello Chris i'm gonna minute let me turn off turn off your tunes i'm just listening to the new gretzer van fleet song the drop to die this is the perfect way to start the interview as you've been you know the metal god you also are still very much tuned into new music constantly
you're probably the one guy that is still very interested in new music from your from your generation quote unquote of bands yeah i can't get enough of it man it's like water for me i have to have a dose of fresh water every day and that that comes to me with music
so i was just just digging that new gretzer van fleet song it's so difficult because every day there's all these great bands dropping new songs and albums and that's just a wonderful place to be now for a metal head for my generation from the roots of metal you know to have been there from the start
and we zoom forward practically 50 years plus and we see how metal is just this gigantic force in the world right now and you've always been such a huge component flag bear for heavy metal from the start and you know it's funny because metal's never gone away
it goes through phases and only when you get a guns and roses for example or you know a Judas priest or an iron made it gets a little bigger but then usually it stays pretty much where it's always meant to be which is kind of just a little bit in the underground yeah
i think you and i talked about this all but the is that thrown around the ring bounced up the ropes a bunch of times that's a nit Chris yeah but we're still here because what we've got to say is important and there's always had value and you know it's that thing about once the metal head
always the metal head it's a great, great, great, carna music in the Bigum Borrell of Rock'n'Roll it's one of the greatest forms of music out there well let's talk about something we're using music fans that's something i always like whenever we get a chance to chat as it's not you know
rob the metal god and Chris the wrestling guy or whatever we're music fans deep down inside and always will be and obviously i can't start this interview without asking about the effect of any van halens passing on you as a fan as a as a peer as a musician i mean it doesn't get much bigger than that
i remember V. Bidley when Daipkork was one of the early managers of Judas Priest came to my house and he banged in the door she's coming to my car i've just had this cassette from this band that everybody's raving about in the america get the call van halens you've got to listen to this guitarist
he's just unbelievable so we sat out sighing his car it was like practically the middle of the night and he put the cassette in and he fired up and then the band fired up and i'm like oh my god what is this man it's just so life just blew me away and i think we played the cassette two or three times
because we were so mesmerized by Eddie's playing and that very first van halens record was all about so that was the thrill and then fast forward a few years and we're in Santa Monica at the Civic Hall and we're opening a special guest for van halens and so there it was he was hanging out
with we've glen and k-k the time talking guitars because guitar players always talk about guitars and over the years Eddie would come to pre-show and him and glen but always be chinwagging about this guitar and this pickup and so on and so forth so beautiful cherished memories Chris and as i said
i'm you know i've been saying just like it's another one of these terrible, terrible situations and so i'm losing these beautiful musicians for various reasons Eddie's is so so you know upsetting for lots of lots of reasons but again we have to celebrate don't we
as soon as you pass start just started cranking out van halens like when we lost Lemmy or Ronnie or Chris or any of our great friends this is the way we remember them and i always lived with this with their music yeah i did that the other night i just grabbed a bottle of vodka
just started looking through van halen on youtube going through all the classic gigs all the eras and you know next you know it's 3.30 in the morning you wake up and you're like holy shit man that's why that's why it's to celebrate that you got to celebrate it's natural to feel sad and upset
but celebrate because that's what music is about just to celebrate one last thing about van halen is one of the most monumental concerts of all time in 83 and priest was on that bill what do you remember about that day and about van halens sad i don't know if you guys did a runner after the show
if you stuck around how was it for you guys i don't think we got to see them i think the guy maybe Glen went to sore day because he was mad it was a mad day but they flew a scene from a hotel offside because it was just insane you couldn't you couldn't drive to the site
it was like a replication of wood stuck at that time because people were abandoning their cars you know just letting it into the site but we took a helicopter ride which is only a few minutes and then the first thing we always remember was seeing hundreds of thousands of cars you know just like
everywhere it was like the apocalypse and then you go over that you go over the hill and you know Duvor you've played there a bunch of times and so then you see all this humanitism you can't figure it out because it's just like hundreds of thousands of people but we landed and of course
we went on a song that wonderful and godly time of a day for a festival the searing sun is right in your face and your frowns you just start to like being in a welding metal shop but it's great man i watched that bit on on youtube the memories are so intense and as you know christy
added the three or four day event the metal event was the most well attended there's all these numbers thrown around couple hundred thousand three hundred thousand there was a ton of people and what a great what a great memory that is and there's a lot of great memories
as we segue and that was a good one you got the poster behind you for your book confess and i'll tell you what we were going to do this i think the last week or whatever and you wanted to empathize preparing and man what a what an unbelievable recollection of your life in so many different ways
and before we kind of get into it what was your inspiration to write the book now and did you started it before the pandemic happened or was this the result of having nothing else going on and so you wrote a book yeah we started it in meetings was with me from the beginning we started hearing phoenix me flow over from the UK and we started to talk you through and figure out where we were going to go and what we were going to do.
And then it's about a lot of meetings here and get together with the Phoenix Saves. Then we took a break and then we finished it off in the UK at the start of this year, was it? Pretty sure it was at the start because I was back home in the UK at Christmas time. We might have done a bit before then. I know we did about 50 hours of one-on-one chats. We talked and talked and talked. So that was how we accumulated all of the material. He instared me. He was just the master. He was the master.
Because with him you don't go all out on a chronological timeline. One day in the 50s, then you're in the 80s, then you're in the 70s, then you're in the 2000s. So it's really good for your brain. Because if you try and ask me what I had for dinner last night, it's struggling. But it was great. And the reason why now is the time is that I've lived 69 years and I feel I've enough information to share beside some of those early recollections. Everything else is accumulative, isn't it?
I'm sure if you think about Christiari Kozlife, you've got your early memories in your brain and then stop starts to build. Yes. I've been doing this for 10 years and then all the other great stuff starts to happen in your late teens, early 20s, and so it goes. So at this point, it fell out the Tom's right. Well, like I said, there's so much great stuff in it. And we've had the pleasure of talking quite a few times as you mentioned.
And the thing I love about your book is not only all the great rock and roll stories, but just the honesty that you have about your sexuality, about being a gay man in the 70s and 80s, and we've discussed this before about how in 2020 nobody gives a shit. But back then, it was a really behind closed doors thing. I never realized with not the torture, but a lot of mental anguish, let's say, that you went through having to keep that secret. Yeah, it was. It was a secret.
And as I say in the book, there's so many of us, you're getting your life in the wrong way round, you know, you're putting everybody else first. And then you put yourself second or third or fourth down the list. I mean, I think that's what we do as people that love our family and our friends and our schoolmates and workmates. We love them because of the things that we share together in life.
But when you're in that closet, you are literally hiding, you're literally leading a double life to some extent. And I talk in the book about the fear of my part of damaging my band, you know, being really worried that if I did probably click them out, that there would be some damage to the band because the world was a different place in the mid-late 70s.
As a priest was picking up speed, and particularly in the 80s, and then we had that horrific HIV AIDS pandemic at the time where all gay people were vilified. It was like our fault, which was just horrible. You know, you're responsible. We were not responsible. And it was a virus that took the lives of all kinds of people, much like what we're suffering with right now. So you mixed all that up, Chris. And I was in a really bad place mentally. The music helped me get through it.
If I hadn't got my music, I don't know where I would have been, you know, but the music was my life source for some many of those periods of my life at that time. I just did a podcast about a friend of mine who's a wrestler's name was Chris Canyon. And he was a closeted gay man in the wrestling business, which once again, now in 2020, it doesn't matter.
But this was only about 10 years ago, but even that he ended up taking his life because he was very tortured, like I say, didn't want to come out. And it really got to, I think, some mental issues too. Did you ever feel like that? Like he discussed a little bit of the book, but did you ever feel like I can't do this anymore? I'm not going to hurt my band, but I don't want to be here. Well, I never felt that I could, I never felt that about the band specifically, but definitely about myself.
I mean, there is that cry for help, episode where I was, you know, deep down in the proverbial shit pit, which is a, but you got to go that well before you start to recover. Where I was, you know, got a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bottle of pills. And I'm just down in the monitor time, you know. And then thank God, I see the, there's some clarity. And I realize I'm doing a really bad thing.
And a friend literally saves my life by taking me to hospital and I get my stomach pumped and I have a chuck with the doctors and they say, you know, you really should speak to somebody and get to the core of what this is about. That's eating you up. So badly inside. And I didn't do it right away. I did, I did it short while later, which is when I started my rehab. And I got a second chance at life.
And when I think any of us have that glorious opportunity that you make the most of it, and that's what I've done being clean and so before I've had 35 years now. You got a great sense of humor that, that Burmese Hemson's of humor, very sarcastic and so don, I can come through the book. And I love the points where you're talking about some of your song lyrics in the 80s. And you look at them now and it's like super obvious. Yeah. Yeah. Eat me alive and job breaker and grinder.
Oh, that's sexual in you end up. I mean, as I was writing, I was lyrics and the back of my mind, I thought, oh, this is a bit Freudian. But it was never my intent. And apart from that one song, Raw Deal on the synapticin album, when I talk about Fire Island up in New York State, all of those are the kind of parallels in some of the lyrics. It was never an intent on my part to kind of use the band for my own agenda, so to speak. But I can see the funny side of some of those episodes.
And of course, Eat Me Alive got, you know, put us on that filthy, what was it, the filthy 15 list? I don't know, I say, who to thought it, you know, it was a crazy time around that moment in rock and roll. Chris says, you know, when bands like Priest and others were being attacked politically for the music that we were having great times with. I actually got sent home from school once because it was right after the defenders of the faith to one of your t-shirts, it said Eat Me Alive on it.
And it was kind of, from what I recall, like a woman in leather pants with her kind of legs open. And they sent me off from school, and they changed my shirt. Well, yeah, politically incorrect, wasn't really the word, you know, I know that visually, I've got visually in my mind that particular t-shirt. And you know, don't get me started on equal rights for everybody across the gender board.
But that was just a little bit of domination, a bit of a thrashing, a bit of a slap is a good foyer isn't it, Chris?
You know, and you were talking to about how in the book that sometimes you just didn't give a shit, you would go out in public and just be Rob Half and be Rob the guy and not worry about the, because the reason why I bring this up is because this is funny, I've never told you this before, but we used to hang out at this convenience store in Winnipeg, you know, I'm from Winnipeg, Canada. And there was a guy, he pre-scame to town, I think on that same tour.
And there's a guy who worked there and he said, last night, Rob Half was at this club called the Black Knight. And the Black Knight was a rock and roll club. And I think that's where you actually saw the band kick-axe. If you remember them, you brought them on the road, one of my favorite all-time bands. And he said, Rob Half was hitting on somebody, my friend or whatever, and we were like, no way, tell ya. He was hitting on this guy, we're like, no way. Half was not galing.
What year was that Chris? What year was that? 1984. I think. I think 1984. Yeah. I was still in the throws. You say, I've always been a, believe it or not, I've always been a shy guy. I've always been a shy guy. And that just becomes, that's just part of my roots and my background. So, but I want to be the first guy to say, well, I really like that guy, I really like that chick. I need a couple of drinks first together. Get up the Dutch courage, you know?
So yeah, once you have a few drinks on the eubelt, you're inhibitions, go, don't make. You let your guard down if that's the right way to call it. Well, let's talk a little bit about your famous voice, man. I mean, you're one of the greatest, not just heavy metal. That's too generalizing.
You're one of the greatest rock singers of all time, even to this day where you still have so much power and those high, high range vocals that, I mean, sometimes you probably think, why the hell did I write this melody line when I was 35 and now I'm almost 70 still having to sing the painkillers and the victims of changes and all that sort of stuff? Who are your inspirations as a singer? And how did you cultivate your voice over the year, years to still have such a great instrument at 69?
Yeah, let me just say it's tough for me now because I love to sing the painkiller and I can't do it as well as I did in 1991. Right. And I always feel like I'm letting the fans down, you know, because we all want to give our fans the best show that we can give and with your voice, because it's such a part of your body and as your body gets older, your voice gets older and you can't really do the stuff you want to do. So I struggled with that for a bit.
And then I saw some great clips of Freddie Mercury and he would sing when he was singing live and he wouldn't make the necessary adjustments to cover the song. And I think as long as you're doing your best and as long as you're getting to the places that you can get to comfortably and it's sounding good and strong, that's all that matters.
So having said that, as music became important to me and as we know, for most of us music becomes important as you get interiorly mid teens because you hate the world, you hate your mom and dad, you hate school, but you love your music. So I was listening to everybody. Obviously I was, funnily enough, today is John, would have been John in the 80th birthday. So I just put a thing up on my socials to celebrate him. Big inspiration for me as a person, a musician and as an activist.
So definitely the Beatles, it was great, brilliant, loving, absolutely stellar. For me the Beatles are a great inspiration. I didn't really understand the voice that much at that time, but I know I must have been soaking that in. How voices can do extraordinary things, particularly the harmonies that the Beatles used to do. So there was the Beatles, obviously the Rolling Stones, Roger Dooltree, all of those early rock musicians where music was starting to get louder.
So singers were having to sing louder because they didn't have in ears and stuff in those days. So I was a combination of all of those different great artists that inspired me. And you know, just watching TV shows, whatever it would be, classic singers and show business singers. I've always said, if you're a singer, you should really try and listen to every way that the human voice can be used in the singing sense.
But I mean, you're saying that you can't sing it as well as you did in 1981, painkiller for example, but you still are. There's other, and once again, we're all human beings and we all do what we have to do to still entertain the fans. But there's other singers that don't have the range that they did when they were in their 30s and 40s. I mean, it's very rare to be Ronnie James Dio where you can still sing like that at 70. But you're not far off, Rob.
I mean, I'm a singer too when I listen to you and I haven't had the chance to see you live on this last tour, but I saw you on the one before that. And I can hear like there's still the power there. After doing this for so long, I mean, is there warm upset you do? Is it just being in better physical condition? Not drinking, not smoking. I mean, genetics. Yeah, you know, you know, Chris, as a fellow singer with your band Faze, resting in recuperation is the best for the voice.
And it's difficult for us because I mean, you love to talk, I love to talk. And you know, the voice has vocal chords and they get worn out because they're muscles and so forth. So you're doing your best to protect your voice through the day before you go on stage. And just because this thing only gives me about an hour and 45 tops of what I wanted to do, it's like a separate entity in here. Right. I don't even bother, well, not bother. That's not the wrong word. I've never warmed up.
I've never warmed up. I just have a cup of strong tea. We call it Builders Tea in the UK. It's so the tea, it's a thick and slotted syrup. I have that. And then I'm ready to go because, you know, much like yourself, you never go on the North Pole pilot, but you know there are certain things that you're getting ready to do. And is it the same for you, Chris, with your band? Do you plan the setlist? So your voice is kind of working through the first couple of three songs. Is that where you live?
I'm not that way. I'm stupid because I look at see like what would the setlist be if I was a fan as far as the power and the tempos and where your big hits are and staggering them throughout. And I'm very fortunate too because I'm 49. I'll be 50 this year. I have a pretty powerful voice. It's durable. But there are certain songs on certain nights that if you're having a rough night, it's like, oh my gosh, this is going to really be hard. So those ones are always kind of in the middle.
But I'm always a big proponent for you. You got to hit that first song. It's got to be a killer if it's fast, if it's whatever. So I try and just wrap my voice around whatever that is. Sometimes it's not easy as you know. It isn't easy. It isn't easy. Especially as we move on in life. You just have to make the necessary adjustments.
I think as long as you fans hear those songs that they've come to here and they're entitled to, that's your duty, that's your responsibility to give you fans what they want. As long as they're there, you know, whether it's, I mean, people have said, why don't you do painkiller at the front of the set because your voice is fresh. And I'm like, well, I could do that. But there are certain songs like with Fuzzy. You say those. Don't you? You say those for the back end.
You want to go out with the best kind of, you know, the best kind of experience. So it's all about planning, unless what we have to do. Another thing I really enjoyed about your book that it's kind of an underrated time frame of your career was your solo use, so to speak. And I remember when the first fight record came out, I was actually resting in Hamburg, Germany, which as you know, is possibly the most heavy metal city in the world, the biggest interest, maybe Birmingham.
And everybody in Hamburg was like, the new childhood is out. It's fucking fight. It's fucking amazing. You gotta hear it. And just that into the pit, like even this day when I listen to it into the pit, it's so fucking heavy. And it's just, it's really great stuff. And it's, it's the natural progression from painkiller was your thought process. And I think you mentioned the book that you kind of left priest and not really knowing that you had left priest until it was too late to go back.
Just tell us a little bit about that and then what the mindset was to release this crushingly heavy fight record. Well, it's still all so very murkied. It's the classic example of Led Zeppelin communication breakdown, you know? And that's not unique to bands. I mean, we've all gone up in this direction of that direction for this reason or that reason. And in hindsight, we wish we could have communicated the reasons and the ideas better.
The priest it was particularly tough because we'd had the renal trial to deal with the painkiller records already to go. But we had to get through the renal trial, where those two beautiful boys, massive priest fans lost their lives through nothing to do with the music, totally other things. They blamed it on you, yeah? Yeah. So we had to get through all of that. And then we had to go on full raw with painkiller, which we did.
But again, you know, looking back through time, this band had worked it as a software over a decade, literally nonstop in the 80s. We were dropping an album a year and doing World Tours. I don't know how we did that. I look at the discography, priest did this and this and then how the hell did we get that done? Yeah. And it's much like everything else, you know, too much of anything is not good for you. And the pressure cooker keeps boiling and boiling and boiling.
And that night in, I think it was Toronto, it was just like the tipping point for me. I needed to get away, I needed a break, you know, I just needed to get off and do something. And that's one of the communication broadcasts up for me, didn't break the band and the band carry it on. So I went back here and I thought about what I was going to do. And I've really got to search myself as a musician to see what I'm capable of doing.
I don't think it was a selfish journey, but it was something that was very important. I think because I did that, I found out a lot more about myself as a musician, which was important, especially with the journey back to priest. So the way metal was changing at that time in the early 90s, Chris, some of the greatest metal bands at the time released some of the greatest metal albums ever.
You look at the first three to five years of the 90s, unbelievable from all kinds of bands, Slayer, Mega Death, Metallica, Pantera, it's just chuck a block of really potent, strong stuff. So that was an inspiration for me and I put all of that music together in my bedroom here at the Phoenix house, I little sucked up in my bedroom and you know, sometimes I get out of bed in the middle of the night and I very primitively lay down these rips, you know.
So I wore a words, came about and I was really pleased with the whole experience because as I said, musicians are always searching for what we're able to do and that was an important moment we should go through. It was such a strange time for heavy metal too, like you mentioned that, you know, with the Metallica and Pantera and Sepul Tura and all those bands in the early 90s, also too was the end in a lot of ways of the two biggest bands in my opinion of the 80s in heavy metal,
true heavy metal was of course Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and both of your bands lost their iconic lead singers pretty much at the same time and then kind of went through the wasteland and both of you guys came back at the same time. It was very strange to see that happen. First of all, I've never talked about that. Really? It is a good mate and I don't know whether we've just never decided to talk about it to a rock or we've never bought up the discussion. Alistairi lead singers disease.
Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Didn't Vince, Vince went off of Vince's hair? Vince Neil left as well, that's right. Ross can we think of? I know Dachon left his own band, Dachon was gone. Did Jeff go away from Queens right to do? He left, I think about five or six years later, but he was gone for, yeah, he was there too.
I don't know what he is, I don't know what he is, but I think there's a bit of a, again, a bit of a parallel with Bruce's journey and myself, you know, and I think we know the heavy metal world was hones in the air when both of us went back to our respective bands. I think there's a, plus as lead singers, you know, we're different animals as it is. I think a lot of it is almost like a, like a petulant schoolboy, it's like, oh, really? Well, I'm just going to leave then. Well, I didn't leave.
You want me to leave? What do you want to leave? You want to leave? I'll leave. And then you're like, holy shit, I'm leaving. We never grow up. We never grow up. We rock and roll bands. We never grow up.
We're like kids. No. And I think that's important because you've got to have this, you've got to have this like childlike youthful exuberance that, hmm, once you start thinking old, you become old, you become old mentally, you know, and if you can fight against that, that's a great way to live as you move on in life. I never want to grow up, you know. I'm not the petal of heavy metal. I'm right behind you, Rob, you're my inspiration. Let me ask you this because I kind of went to the same thing.
We first started Fuzzy and I was used to wrestling in front of, you know, tens of thousands of people in arenas or whatever. And then you start with Fuzzy and people, automatically think, well, it's Chris Jericho and the guys from Stuck Mode, you're just going to be, you know, a thousand people will guess what? There's 40 people in a shitty little pool hall in, you know, South Carolina somewhere. It really puts you in your place quickly.
You mentioned that in the book, but how was it for you when you leave the mighty Judas priest and start fight and nobody's there? He changed the game. The gig. Oh, fuck. He leaped on a little club. It was rammed because the Germans were ready, you know, the Germans were ready for war of words. But yeah, I had to really walk back in time.
But I tell you what that did for me, Chris, again, it really wasn't eye opener because you've really got to be prepared with any new band to pay you do as it doesn't matter how much time you put in previously with whatever you've been with. You have to start from scratch. You're not entitled to anything in life. You have to work with it. You have to earn it, you know. And that's what we did with the fight band. That was a really kind of short blast of metal power.
We didn't really last that long. But in the time that we were together, the war of words album, and to some extent, the small deadly spice album did a lot of good things. And something a lot of people might know is that Russ Perish, who is Satchel and Steel Panther, was your guitar player for that record for War of Words? Amazing phenomenal guitar player, at least today. I mean, I love that band. It's a great, like, concept, great idea unique. There is only one Steel Panther.
Yeah, they're great. We toured with them a few times. They always have a blast. They're good guys. When you're talking about Prius, how was the road to the reconciliation for you to get back into the band? I was talking about this last night with Thomas because we do our not least hard career around the hills here because I've got to try and still keep in fairly decent shape. I do my hour plus hiking walk every night, no matter what. And I do my 30 minutes swim no matter what.
So I try and keep physically together because road work is gruelling as you know, Chris. Sure. And if you've got a fancy jet or a fancy bus, if you're doing sharp to show off to show when you got it, you know, the hours, it's just crazy. So, but I was telling it to Thomas about this. And he reminded me that the day that we actually reunited was when Ken and Ian came to my house in England with the, at the time, I'm sure it was the metallurgy box set, the the black cube box set.
And we came to have a talk about that. And I'd seen it occasionally prior to that moment. And I think I saw Ken once at my mum dad's wedding anniversary. But we were sitting there talking about the box set and about the songs and it looks great. No, this is the album and this album. And then we finished all that. And then somebody said, so I'll show me get back together again. And we all went, I went, yeah, let's try this too. That was it. That was it.
And then they left about three minutes later. And I'm sitting there going, back he brings. Yeah, but he brings. It's one of those things and I've had it before too, where you have these years of animosity. Like you said, all it takes is one sentence. And you're like, what the fuck are we so mad at each other for? Anyways, like what the heck, you know? Yeah, yeah, it's just, it's, I'm not sure in the band, you can't really explain it. It's just, yeah, it's a peculiar thing.
Yeah. But when Priests was announced with Rob Halfour returning, that obviously gave a huge shot in the arm to the band. There's some really big buzz about that. It must have been exciting for you. Oh, it was, it was, I mean, it's mad because I said many, many times. I never felt like a left priest. I just got one, wondered off down the metal road for a bit. Just my heart and soul, my heart and soul were embedded to priest and they always will be.
But it was, it was just, it seemed like such a simple thing to do and say, like 10 years later and there it was. Did you ever listen to the Priests records with Tim Owens? I didn't know. And I've been asked this before. It's a perfectly legit question. I think it's just because my association isn't there in those albums. I've heard one or two tracks, but I haven't listened to the albums in their entirety.
You know, I've always been a fan and a friend of what Ripper's done over the years with friends. That's cool. I can't explain it. I can't explain it. It's just something new. I said this. I have said this. You know, we should be on the road, like Fossil should be on the road. We're all taking these extended breaks and we're all planning to get back out and we're going to complete this 50th or start and finish this 50th anniversary priest tour eventually.
If there's a song on there from either the Joggy Lodge or Demolition that has a place, we'll do it. Oh, that's great. They're all important. Every album that this band has made is important. It's all validated, you know. You know, fans love that stuff too because I know I always appreciate when Iron Maiden does, you know, a blaze Bailey song, Sign of the Cross or what have you.
And even Guns and Roses, when they reunited, they did a couple songs from Chinese democracy with slash and duff playing on it just became Guns and Roses song. So that's really cool. It'd be cool to hear something from one of those records. Like you said, if it fits. Yeah, the music is bigger than any of us really. Right. I've said before, priest isn't one person. It's just this music entity that's got a lot of its own. There's another great story in there.
I didn't realize it happened more than once where you, with very little notice, we're asked to fill in for Black Sabbath once when I believe Ronnie didn't want to do the show and once when Ozzy couldn't do the show. How was that stepping? Obviously you have the Birmingham connection, the home of heavy metal. You're the metal god, but go in a single Black Sabbath. That seems almost like a step above of what you're like, oh my gosh, how does it get any bigger?
Well, now you're singing for Black Sabbath. Yeah, both of them were like a combination of kid and heavy metal candy straw, but also being terrified because, as I've said again many, many times, I love them. My life is priest, but there is Sabbath. So yeah, that first time we did have a little bit of preparation because Tony called me advanced, called me in advance and we talked about the subtlest. And then the guys came through Phoenix on the way to California and we had one reversal.
I learned the songs, which I already knew because I know I've been subdued on. And then like a day or two later we had those two shows at Costa Mesa and that was just so surreal. I think I tell the funny story about getting lost on stage before the show starts. Then the weather that's in the ball happened, tell us.
But we got all, we all got dressed, you know, we were all kitted up and ready to go on to the business and I walk out with Tony to the left side of the stage and the lights go down the fun start screaming and the intro tape starts and they go, Tony, when are we walking on and he's gone? Where's he gone? Tony, Tony, I can't find Tony. And I think oh shit. And we said previously, you're going on the left and I go on on the right.
So I'm stumbling around in the dark by myself trying to find the side of the stage. I find it and I'm looking, there's nobody on, I can't, and then smoke and there's dry eyes. So I start to walk out thinking that the band is there. So I walk out to the middle of the stage and it was like a little bit of light and the band's going mad and I look around and there's nobody on the stage. I'm like, oh god, I've come out too early.
You know, I was like the spare dick at the wedding and I'm like, oh, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. So I walk back up again and then I see Tony coming, walking on these lapidly stairs on. Tony's a real jokester. Tony loves to pull friends. Tony's a jokester. So that was like a double memory of that. And then of course, the thing I've read in Camden, I think it was, Sharon called me up a couple of hours before the show and said, oh, he's not feeling very well.
Can you sing a show? And I said, yeah, when you want me to do it, she goes tonight and like tonight. So you do what you do. We help each other, don't we? Yeah. We've always got to do this back. That's the main thing. And then he sings in that second appearance that weren't in the first. He had to get a discment and listen through her. That probably was in Handan Hart to come. Remember this at least, probably on that great website. Right. That was cool.
But I know when Tony called me up originally for that first, those costamosa shows, he said to me, are there any Sabbath songs that you want to do? And I'm like, Tony, no, I've always wanted to hear Sabbath do this song. Well, that's so much. And he's like, oh, God, I forgot about that. So we actually played a couple of three songs in costamosa, the band either never played before live or they had been played for the longest time. I can't remember the set list from the...
Was there any songs that you like, of the classics that you enjoyed singing the most out of those Sabbath songs? Did we do an I-Bird? Oh, yeah, you did an I-B, yeah. We did an I-B, didn't we? Oh, God. See, you put me on the spot. You're a good one. I have to have a list. But they were at least, there was a handful that I was thrilled to have the honor and privilege to sing.
Back in the days, pre-YouTube is probably up there now, but that was one of the hardest kind of tape-trading things to find, would get the Rob Halford set from when you did that show in costamosa or the two shows. And I actually found... Did you ever used to go to Japan to heirs in Japan? Oh, yes. Yes. You know, Juneco had all the bootlegs. Yes. There was every... Yeah. It was a place in in Tokyo where you could go and they had every band, 10, 20, 30 bootlegs shows.
And the gimmick was, so nobody sued them, whenever you went in there as a musician, they would give you whatever you wanted. And that was... Yes. That's right. Oh, my God. I could have spent days in the place. Because there's only a small, small building. A small little room, little showroom. But it was rammed, you couldn't say the walls or the sailing, because it was like from the floor up, you know. And God, yeah. I just had to stop. I'd like three or four carriers. Every time... Every time.
...carrying. Just stuff to take you back to the hotel. The first time I went to ask her, like I said her name was Juneco. I said, Juneco, do you have any Beatles stuff? She's like, yeah, I follow me. She goes around the corner. There's a whole wall. And like Beatles in Sweden, 1963, like, what is this? Were you finding this stuff? It was a real great place to go. There's a great friend of mine who has probably got the largest... Call and Boot legs, call and rare it is.
The largest collection of priests. Oh, wow. He's got like 300 plus cassettes and bits of video stuff. He and I stay in touch all the time. And I just... He's a great guy. And I always say, just keep that stuff for us. Just keep it. You'll like the... The guard. Just keep it there at your place. I'll bring in Mary. And... So it's just wonderful. I say to all bands, it doesn't matter where you go or where you end up. Whatever you do, type it, film it. Even when you rehearse, just keep it.
Even if it's just like a song, because you never know how useful and important what you're doing now might be 10, 20 years ahead. That's right. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Last few questions for you, Rob. I feel the last priest record, Firepower, was not a return to form because you never strayed, but I just thought that record was excellent and produced by our mutual friend and a former Foszy, as a matter of fact, Andy Sneep. And of course, now Andy's in the band.
Tell us a little bit about how Andy... How you worked with him to create Firepower and how he ended up in Judas Priest, the Dream gig for him. Let's see. Glenn and Richie and myself talked about Firepower before we even made it. It was a pretty simple idea. We wanted to really focus and utilize all of the great classic elements of this band that you hear from some things of destiny all the way through. So that was our kind of blueprint for writing.
And we were very, very strict on the stuff that we were doing. When we come up with riffs and ideas, we go, that's great, but it's not right for this record. So we put that in the vault. We've got so much stuff in the vault. And then it was like, who are we going to get to produce it? The idea was always to have Tom Allen come back in, but equally, we were aware of all the great things that have been happening in metal.
And you know, again, I can't remember how Andy Sneep's name came into the... I didn't know whether it was from Glenn, maybe Glenn and then something with him. Anyway, Andy was the guy. So there was Andy, there was Tom, there was Mark Axis through, just come off the sub-13 album. And so there it was. That was how we started to put the components together for the firepower. Well, at a great time. It was just a really special moment for the band.
Good. Yeah, just quickly with the way that Andy has been so gracious and stepped into Glenn's metal shoes, you know, we were rehearsing in jamming. Glenn was there and Andy would come in and hang out. And there was the day when Glenn said, look guys, I think it's best if I just... Just stepped to one side because, you know, I want to play the guitar like I know I have to play the guitar. Glenn's perfection is one of the great seven metal guitar players ever.
And I thought that was a really brave, heroic, strong thing to say. That he felt that if he'd have gone out, his playing wouldn't have been at the level that he felt he'd needed to be for the priest. So that same day we bought Andy in and Andy would you help out with this tour? Yeah, whatever you need. Let's go. Let's do it. So we made that tour happen. And just to quickly finalize this, Glenn is and always will be a fully integrated member of priest. He's back in the Ok now, probably riffing.
He can still play the guitar and he's still writing music and his name will be all over the next bunch of priest songs when we finally get back into the world and have been able to write and record again for some more sessions. I just for people that don't know Glenn has the early stages of Parkinson's disease. Yeah. Yes. He's been dealing with Parkinson's for a long, long time. He had it for every, didn't even know he'd got it until they began all these trials and tests.
And they said, well, you know, you know, you started in your body so many years ago. My God, I can't believe it. You know, that he was still able to go out and work. It's a horrible, horrible cruel thing for anybody to have to deal with. And so Glenn's still bravely battling on and we've got this Glenn tips and foundation and beautiful phones around the world have already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars which goes to research.
You can do that by going to any pre-social, it's fine in the connection. It's a dollar, whatever, anything, penny, whatever. We also put the bike out to the front of the show for everybody to see. Now let's go. Put a book in the park, ten books in the park, whatever. We're always rising cash because we have anything like this, whether it's Parkinson's cancer, whatever. There's never enough money to fund research. So it's all good. Glenn was always the one that all the chicks in Winnipeg love.
He was the hot guy in priest. Yeah. I'll pass that on to him because we still... I'll give him a text letter. Please do. He lied that. He loves a boost. I thought it was cool too that you would have him come and play a couple songs with you guys whenever the time was right, you know, whenever he could break in the law or whatever it was. That's it. He's coming out to do whatever he can to still rock and roll, you know? Yeah. Yeah. He's just amazing. I love being with him.
I'm extremely terribly because we're having to be apart with what's going on. Sure. And for people like our generation, as you know, Chris, is particularly difficult. We have to keep safe. You know, we have to keep quarantined. And I rarely, rarely ever ever go out. I've brave didn't either day to get some skeletons and stuff to put around the house for Halloween. We have the PPP on and everything and like, stand six feet away. I'm just running. Yes, sir. Stand six feet away from the house.
Just winding down. You obviously now the flag bearer for priestess as you guys, you know, when you can tour again, but the last few shows where now it's you and Ian, kind of the original guys. Scott's been there for 30 years. We have Richie and Sneep out there with you Andy. So I mean, it seems once again, the music far outlasts, you know, the members of the band because you guys are all world Judas priests fans and just having you guys play is an amazing experience in 2020.
Do you feel now that you are kind of the flag bearer for priest and still the flag bearer for heavy metal that you've always been? Well, I think it's very nice words. I really appreciate that, Chris. And I think there are other bands out there that may not have been together as long as priests, but we're all still doing the stuff aren't we? We're all defending the heavy metal faith.
We're keeping the heavy metal faith alive and priests might have been doing it a little bit longer than everybody else. But that's what we do, you know, and the metal community is there for everybody. We love each other of the week care for each other. We support each other with our metal and priest is still going to go on into that long distant metal future.
Like you said, when you guys did the epitaph tour, which was the retirement tour, the end tour, the final tour, I was like, no, and then you just kept going. It's like, that's better. Yeah, that was another classic example of miscommunication. But anyway, yeah, the priest is alive and kicking those big heavy metal boots. Last two questions. First of all, what do you want people to take away from confess after they read it?
Well, just to further insight into who I am as a person, if you're interested, the other reason Chris is that inevitably there's a lot of pseudo on official autobiographies that get made. I don't know whether anybody's done that about Chris Jericho, the rest of the body. It's just inevitable. You're going to get like little bits of information here and everywhere. You're not getting the truth and the facts. So that's what I wanted to do.
And I just felt it was, you know, it's not like you've got to do it. But because I've lived such a beautiful life and I'm so grateful to everybody for giving him this life in metal, it's just something to give back. You know, you give with your music and I think another element in that is just giving back what you've experienced in life and just sharing some of those things that maybe didn't know about.
And what some of those moments, particularly the darker moments, can be utilized in some way, you know, can help you through an idea or a situation that you're dealing with yourself. Because that's what it's about, man, life is about living and loving and sharing, that's how it should work. I get a real vibe of, don't be afraid to be yourself. You know, and I really appreciate that from your standpoint where you couldn't quite do that 30 years, 40 years ago.
But now you're so much happier that you could be this person that you are and anybody else that feels like you used to should take your advice. Yeah, and that's what we do. As you get older, people ask you more and more for information and I'm happy to share it no matter what it might be. You know, whether it's dealing with coming out of the closet, whether it's dealing with being clean and sober, whether it's dealing with mental issues because of my depression and all that kind of stuff.
So that's what we do, man. We love each other, we need more love in the world, especially right now. Absolutely. Yeah. Last question, Rob. What song to sing with three, so when you guys play live, is there one that... Yeah, it's tough. I always say victim of change, it's just because that's amazed. It's got everything in metal. It's got the slamming riffs, the twing guitar, screaming vocals, the quiet bits, the crescendo at the end. It's one of my old time favorites.
It's fun, I didn't understand that song as much when I was a kid, but now that I'm older, that might be my favorite pre-song. It grew on me over the years as I got experience in life, you know? It's a good song. It's a good song. It's a good song, confess the good book, and you're a good guy, Rob. It's always a pleasure to talk to you, man. I appreciate it. Chris, it's always a pleasure, man. These chunks we have are very special, I mean, a lot to me.
Good luck with everything you do with a fuzzy, and in your sports world, and what... You've been doing all this for like 30 years, isn't it? It's my 30th year anniversary. Congratulations, congratulations, man. That's the friend of mine that you met in Los Angeles. Yeah. I appreciate it, Chris, his best wishes. What an achievement, man. You're a star, you're self in so many ways. It's always a pleasure. Thank you, Rob. Stay safe. Stay mental, stay hard. What's your fucking hands?
Tell me if he's a wanker. Yeah. See ya, brother. Thanks, Rob. ちいいや turf. Okay. Okay.