While Judas Priest continues its Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career into a sixth decade, frontman Rob Halford remains just as enthusiastic as ever about the music he loves and hopeful for the future of his band.
Judas Priest is about to launch a new tour of North America with Alice Cooper and Corrosion of Conformity. The band is celebrating its beloved 1990 Painkiller album in a setlist of otherwise genre-defining hits and acclaimed newer material.
Speaking to Q104.3 New York's Out of the Box with Jonathan Clarke, Halford notes that 2026 will mark both the 50th anniversary of Judas Priest's second album Sad Wings of Destiny and the 40th anniversary of its tenth studio album Turbo. But rather than lament the years that have passed, Halford is eager to celebrate his band's heavy metal triumphs with fans young and old.
"These great anniversaries are coming to us, left, right and center," Halford says. "You look at all these albums and you think, 'How can we re-celebrate them? How can we take the band and our beautiful fans back to that place and think about the good times that we had then and the good times that we're having now?'"
Halford's appreciation extends far beyond his heavy metal kingdom. Recently, he openly considered doing a Tony Bennett tribute album, and he still speaks glowingly of his encounter with Dolly Parton at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2022, which led to his collaboration with Dolly on her Rock Star album the following year.
"It was a buzz, firstly, to know that we were going to be in the same induction ceremony as Dolly. ...And then the day of rehearsal was just extraordinary," he recalls. "I hadn't met her until that point and she suddenly appears on the other side of the stage. And she's radiating all this love; it's the Queen of Country."
Dolly very sweetly followed up with a thank you note, and then Halford was further elated with a request to duet with her on her song "Bygones."
"It's still a rush because I'm just some kid from like a public housing estate and here I am with one of the greatest entertainers of all time," he adds. "It's unbelievable."
Watch the full conversation via the player above!
Get all of Judas Priest's tour dates here.