HALFORD – All music is therapy! (WAY UP version)
As Denis was not available, I unexpectedly had the honour to speak with Rob Halford. At the first date the phone rang at 1.32 CET (!), and I prepared for 0.30 at the max (and so already fallen asleep). I wasn´t able to ask some questions that made sense. At the second date – this time at 0.00 CET and right on time – the following chat (not only) about the third HALFORD disc “Winter Songs” took place:
MS: I read a lot about the new album and made up my mind about it. The big problem for you must have been the traditionals!
Rob: Well, first of all the big problem was trying to find the right balance for the songs that would take the kind of treatment that we wanted to give them. Of course there are many many many different types of songs, traditional songs that everybody is familiar with around the Christmas holidays. And there are some songs that immediately you feel they have a good chance of a different interpretation, a rock/metal interpretation. And then there are some songs that seem intriguing to kind of explore… For example, “What Child Is This?”: to listen to that in its original state, it´s kind of compelling to consider what it might be able to turn into. At the end of the day a good song is a good song. And a good song will take any kind of reflection. So that´s what we started to look for. And of course we found 6 tracks. There were others that we thought we would leave to one side for the time being. But we have these 6 tracks. Of course one is the song from Sarah Barreilles which is totally different (”Winter Song”). So it´s 5 really traditional Christmas songs and then the rest are originals and the one by Sarah.
MS: Any songs that you would have liked to do but you couldn´t “halfordize” them maybe because they are too popular or just didn´t work?
Rob: I think we were trying to stay in the theme of the message of Christmas, as far as the messages of “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” and “Oh Holy Night.” They were important to me personally. I wanted to have that type of signal in the words of these songs. So that was the idea that we talked about in the band before the project began. I think just on a personal level I was able to satisfy my own pleasure in recording those particular songs. And maybe, if we make a second release, the other songs that we considered might just be more of a kind of “informal” type of Christmas celebration. Anyway, I think what we ended up with was a good balance, you know, 10 very different sounds, different tracks, different performances, and just making an interesting release.
MS: One of the greatest aspects of the album is the guitarwork which is absolutely brilliant!
Rob: Oh yeah, it´s amazing! You see, the thing is, I was busy on the road with PRIEST. And so, the rest of the guys were working away independently by themselves. And that was great because they are first-class musicians. They know exactly what they wanna do and how they want to present themselves on these songs. So I didn´t hear the songs until they were almost completed. I was like a fan, you know? When I heard ´em I was like, “Oh my god! I can´t wait to put my voice on these instrumentals!”, it was really exciting!
MS: From the original songs on “Winter Songs,” musically my favorite is “Get Into The Spirit” but lyrically it´s “I Don´t Care”, haha!
Rob: Oh yeah, haha! When I was writing the lyrics for “Get Into The Spirit,” I was thinking about the Christmas spirit. But I think it´s also about the spirits of metal you know, living the dream together and coming together and raise your spirits high and everything like that. I think that was my feeling towards the Christmas spirit and the metal spirit. And of course what I like to call “The Charles Dickens´ Christmas Scrooge” or “The Heavy Metal Grinch” from America is in the lyric of “I Don´t Care For Christmas.” So I had a lot of fun with writing lyrics for the original tunes. The other ones I didn´t want to touch; they had to be left intact. I like songs that have a story, a good story.
MS: That´s what I miss on some PRIEST lyrics.
Rob: If you look at all of the lyrics that I´ve written – generally all of them, I´m not saying every single one – but I think most of them, they all convey a message of hope and understanding and kind of caring for each other and being a team and staying strong and fighting against the bad things – that type of philosophy. I think heavy metal music carries that type of attitude you know, good against evil, whatever it might be. At least that´s in classic metal!
MS: Yeah, but some of the PRIEST lyrics are a little too vague for me. Do you know what I mean?
Rob: Yeah. Well, again, depending on which song you´re talking about, I like to consider the what I call “The ambiguity of a lyric” which means that that can be taken to be understood in more than one way. And that´s just a personal choice. Sometimes they´re very direct, like “The Painkiller” or “The Sinner” or something like that. So many many different topics, but that´s the pleasure that I get as a lyric-writer as well as being a singer and everything else.
The power of metal is very inspiring. And I think it´s been used in many many ways to help people get through difficulties. I mean I use it myself! If I feel a bit blue or get depressed for whatever reason, I just listen to some metal and it picks me back up! And I think that´s what it does to people. Generally that´s what music does. All music is therapy!
MS: And it´s the universal language!
Rob: Yes, it´s the universal language. That´s what I like about the metal scene: If you take a metalhead from Germany and a metalhead from Japan and from Italy, from England, from America, Mexico, Brazil, you put ´em all in the same room, they may not be able to speak the same language, but they all speak the same language of metal music. So that´s sometimes the connection that we´ve got with the power of metal.
MS: I can imagine that you enjoyed writing the lyrics for “I Don´t Care” because they are a little different for you. But I can also imagine that sometimes your very serious image gets in the way…
Rob: Yeah, hahaha, it does! Yeah it does. It´s an opportunity that I like to take. It´s very rare to be able to have a lot of fun with that kind of lyric for “I Don´t Care For Christmas.” Actually, I can´t take full credit for that because the inspiration for that lyric came from quite a famous movie from America. Many years ago (1987), two comedy film stars, Steve Martin and John Candy made a movie called “Planes, Trains & Automobiles.” And that´s one of my favorite Christmas films that I like to watch. So for some unknown reason when I was listening to the music I started to think about that film. So that film was kind of the inspiration for the lyric that turned out to be.
MS: While I was listening to “Winter Songs” I thought to myself that you with PRIEST have done a song with some Christmas flavor, and that was “Evening Star”! What do you think about that?!
Rob: Yeah, that´s a good reference point! I think you´re the only journalist that´s ever mentioned that particular song. I remember writing the lyrics to that song, “Evening star, shining so bright.” In my memory, I don´t recall it having that type of feeling, a Christmas-type feeling. In all honesty, I can´t really remember how the idea originated. But certainly, I agree with you, it could be viewed as the Christmas star. I think that´s quite correct, yeah!
MS: Yeah, it has some kind of coral flavor!
Rob: It does, yes! To be honest, I haven´t listened to that song for many many many years. You´ve inspired me to check it out! As I´m talking to you I can hear the melody in my head. I´ll definitely check it out, yeah! I remember that was quite a successful song for JUDAS PRIEST. It was in the British pop charts!
MS: I can imagine that during your career you have spent the Christmas holidays in various places…
Rob: Yes, in many places. Most of them have been in my home in Warwickshire outside of Birmingham. But I´ve had holidays in… I have another home in Phoenix, Arizona. That´s a beautiful location but of course it´s very crazy ´cause on Christmas day it´s usually very hot. You know, to wake up on Christmas morning and to see the cactus trees and the rattlesnakes and the scorpions and all of the other things that live in my garden, it´s very different to sing “Reindeer” or things like that, you know, very, very different.
I´ve had Christmas there; I´ve had Christmas in Las Vegas – which is very surreal, very, very strange -; I´ve had Christmas in San Diego; I think I had one Christmas in the Bahamas; I´ve had Christmas times in Denmark and obviously in Germany. Nuremberg especially I remember one Christmas time… – So yeah, lots of different places with different types of feelings, you know. But I think Christmas for most people is when you´re at your home where you´re born, together with your family and the people you love.
MS: And finally: What is the price of being the Metal God?
Rob: Well, I think it´s a small price, but I think it´s responsibility. I think that you exist by your own achievements. I think that you get out of life what you put into life. And I think that when you have a relationship with the fans of your music, then I think it brings a certain element of responsibility into the whole experience. And I think if you recognize that, it can make you a better musician because you´re always endeavouring to do the best that you can do. And you´re also trying to maybe try things a little different, a little unusual, something that you think your real fans understand.
For somebody like myself that´s had a very comprehensive career in metal – and I´ve done many many things – that´s because I´ve loved the sense of adventure, and the sense of responsibility too. To myself and to my fans to try and get as much out of music as I possibly can. Because music is music is music, you know? You don´t wanna put yourself in a box and stay in one place. That´s crazy if you wanna do that; it´s like trapping yourself musically. The best musician has a completely open mind and takes off the blinkers and goes and searches and has fun and experiments and sometimes succeeds and sometimes doesn´t succeed. But surely that´s what being a musician is about: It´s about enjoying all the pleasures that all kinds of music can bring you!
This story will be published in WAY UP #35