Recycled Metal

Spencer Patterson

Saturday, July 2, 2005 | 12:16 p.m.

Who: Judas Priest with Queensryche.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Tickets: $36.75 to $68.25.

Information: 632-7580.

Judas Priest. For more than three decades, that name has been synonymous with heavy metal music.

Together since the early 1970s, the British band has proven to be one of its genre's most enduring and influential outfits, carving out a loyal worldwide fanbase behind its high-energy shows and such rock anthems as "Living After Midnight" and "You've Got Another Thing Comin'."

This summer, the band's best-known lineup is headlining a tour for the first time since the early 1990s, thanks to the recent return of longtime frontman Rob Halford.

Halford and his bandmates -- guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis -- stop in Las Vegas on Saturday for an 8 p.m. concert at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Queensryche is scheduled to open the show.

Judas Priest's vocalist from 1973 to 1991, Halford left the band to pursue solo projects and was replaced by Tim "Ripper" Owens of Priest tribute band British Steel. Owens' story inspired the 2001 film "Rock Star."

Halford returned to the band in 2003, in time to lead Judas Priest through a set of Ozzfest support dates last year and record the album "Angel of Retribution," released in March. The disc reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 album charts.

On Tuesday the 53-year-old Halford took time for a phone interview from a hotel room in Albuquerque.

Las Vegas Sun: So how does it feel being back on the bus with Judas Priest?

Rob Halford: It's wonderful. In rock 'n' roll there is no timeline, so the time that I was away, for me, was just a flash. And of course Judas Priest was never away. Tim took the role of lead singer for a time and did a magnificent job. So Judas Priest has always been there.

Sun: Did you ever see the band perform with Owens on vocals?

RH: You know, I was in Phoenix one time when they came into town. But I don't think it would have been the right thing to do. It would have been difficult on a lot of fronts. So I just kind of sat at home, put my ear to the floor and heard the rumbling downtown.

Sun: Were there any hard feelings when you rejoined the band?

RH: No, there's a lot of love in this band. And it wasn't a breakup per se. I just wandered off and had to do my own stuff and fulfill some of the desires that I had.

But while I was away I was quite patently made aware that some of the greatest things I achieve in what I do come in working -- and especially writing -- with Glenn and K.K. And then recording and putting on these massive Judas Priest two-year, two-hour world tours.

Sun: How did you guys get back together after so long apart?

RH: The circumstances of my return were based around last year's "Metalogy" boxed set. We were all having a meeting at my house. It was the first time we'd had an official kind of get-together and the subject was just approached, "Are we gonna do a reunion?" And we just said, "Let's go" -- a very simple answer to what could have been a complicated question.

Sun: What type of a crowd shows up to see Judas Priest in 2005?

RH: We look out at the stages of the world every night, and we see all types of fans. It's just such a joy now to see these younger generations of metal fans, some of whom are as young as in their pre-teens coming to the shows and getting an earful of the mighty Priest.

In some instances it's dads bringing their sons and daughters, moms and dads, And it just reinforces all the great things that happen in and around Judas Priest. No matter how you might view us or think about us, we're basically a heavy metal rock 'n' roll band that's out there to give people a good night out.

Sun: On the official Judas Priest Web site (www.judaspriest.com), there's a petition to get the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Considering metal peers such as Black Sabbath, Kiss and Alice Cooper haven't been inducted, how realistic a goal do you think that is?

RH: The fans put that whole business of the petition on the Web site, which is terrific.

I think that in the area of respect toward heavy metal music ... it has always been something of an underdog. But fortunately that seems to have been changing in recent years.

I think the more conservative side of the industry is now looking to bands like Priest -- which have a tremendous caliber of musicianship, hundreds and hundreds of recorded songs and thousands of shows -- and going, "We missed this. Let's give these guys their due."

If it happens -- and it might never happen -- but if it does happen, to have a British heavy metal band in the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would be the crowning achievement for us all, definitely.

Sun: In 1990, Judas Priest prevailed in a Washoe County court case alleging subliminal messages in the band's music led two teenagers to attempt suicide. Though 15 years have passed since then, do you think that highly publicized incident continues to hurt Priest's chances when it comes to honors such as possible Hall of Fame induction?

RH: I don't think so. I'm a Grammy (voter), and I think that the majority of the people involved in all of these voting situations are generally very open-minded and savvy about what's happening.

But you do have to push; you do have to make sure that you let those kinds of people know what's going on. And that means using all of the tools and the assets that put you into people's minds. That comes from talking to people such as yourself in the media and so forth.

Sun: Given the macho nature of the heavy metal scene, have you been treated any differently since coming out as a gay man in 1997?

RH: No. It was a wonderful time for myself, and I did it for myself exclusively. It was just a very personal moment of release. Of course it had its benefits. You can kind of disarm some of the people that are talking behind your back or making comments. You take away the ammunition of people who might want to hurt you intentionally or unintentionally.

But I found nothing but a tremendous outpouring of support and love, and that was the best thing I could have ever wished for. It kind of destroyed the so-called macho myth of any possible intolerance from the metal community. It just did not happen.

Generally people were just like, "We don't care. You do what you do, Rob. We love what you do as a performer and as a singer, and we want more of this."

Fortunately the world has changed a little bit since the '60s, the '70s ... but the battle still continues among people such as myself, because we are still a minority group that is still afforded a tremendous amount of prejudice and hate.

But by me simply walking out onstage every night in front of all those thousands of people worldwide, that's affirmation for me as a gay man singing in a metal band.

And that's all I need to do in terms of a sense of accomplishment. Because I'm not an activist. I'm a very conservative homosexual in that respect. I feel that there are people more adequately supplied to pursue whatever rhetoric they want to display, for this cause or that cause. But for just walking out and doing what I do is great.

Sun: Have the years away from the Priest catalog made this time more fun for you?

RH: It's like that song, you don't know what you've got till it's gone. I think that's how it was for me. Having worked solidly with the band for over 20-odd years, pretty much nonstop without a break, it's easy to lose track of what you've got and what it's giving you.

So I was yearning to get back, but I knew that time would have to take its course and all of the right conditions would have to be in place before we could ever approach the possibility.

Sun: Now that you're back, do you intend to stay with Judas Priest long-term?

RH: Oh yes. We want to make it abundantly clear that this isn't a one-off. There's so much more work to do.

We'll take all of this energy from hundreds and hundreds of fans around the world back to the studio next year, and we'll make another Judas Priest record. And I'm sure we will be going out on our worldwide treks to support our new material for years to come.

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