Rob Halford: It's just an observation on the retail side of distribution in the whole of the recording industry now. It's been in turmoil since the internet's been invented. It makes sense to do it this way. Even the major labels are providing online downloads. It's a combination of a lot of thing: living in the future, which is the way to go with all of these incredible moments that are afforded by people like Apple iTunes, who we've given the exclusive rights for these releases; and the fact that RobHalford.com is just an incredibly successful website, for not only myself, but for the metal community worldwide. It's a combination of all of those. Metal God Entertainment is going to be active and strong in providing the opportunity for everything the Halford band releases on that format. Eventually I hope it grows into a bigger dimension and potentially looking after other artists in the metal world down the line. It's a big, broad based opportunity.
Did you already own the rights to the Halford material, or did you have to purchase or acquire them from the record company?
I've had a wonderful relationship with Rod Smallwood and everybody at Sanctuary. We agreed upon my return to Priest there was a need to change shape businesswise, and was able to come to an agreement with Rod and Sanctuary and buy back all of my music from the Sanctuary Group and everything that went with it like videos and photo shoots. I'm now in the pleasurable environment of being able to look after this great music, which much like everything I've tried to do in metal, will stand the test of time and will be just as valuable now as we believe it will be in the future. I can do everything that I feel is necessary to sustain the life of that music and whatever is to come through Metal God Entertainment.
A new Halford track "Forgotten Generation" will soon be available digitally. Is that from the archives or something you've recently recorded with the band?
Since I went back to Priest, which was a great moment for me and everybody in the world of metal, I received tremendous support and encouragement from all the Halford band members who said, "You've got to go back , Rob. That's where you're from. You go there and if it's cool we'll keep the Halford band on the back burner." So that's what we've been doing. Metal Mike along with Roy Z have been working in the background writing material and recording material and presenting it to me when it's been practically completed. I've just plugged the mic in and layed down some vocals. These two tracks, "Forgotten Generation" and "Dropout" are a couple of songs from an enormous amount of material that has been accumulating. So it's not really from the archives per se, just music that's building and ready to go when we feel it's the right thing to do. My main goal is to never make any conflict in the Priest world, because that's where my heart is and that's where my life leads me with my music. When there's no conflict in release or live performances we'll bring out Halford stuff in the future.
The Halford re-releases are all digital on iTunes. Will they be re-released in CD format in the future?
At this point we're going to stay digital. The metal community is just as up to speed as the rest of the world when it comes to digital downloads. We feel that the quality of digital from Apple iTunes is great. There's only a small difference between that and getting a full CD. On iTunes you have the music, the artwork, the liner notes, the pictures, everything. But we'll see. I don't want to dismiss those metal fans that want to physically possess the CD for their collection. But for the moment we want to stay with Apple iTune exclusivity along with Metal God Entertainment music online, which you will be able to download as well. We're building that now. If you don't have access to iTunes and like the other formats of downloads we're going to make sure everyone has the opportunity to get what they want for their own needs and whatever equipment they are using at home.
You've also added some bonus material as an added incentive.
I think so. I know what it feels like to be presented with something you've already got, so we worked really hard to remaster these songs, which to my ears sound even better, along with the additional tracks. And with iTunes if you don't want the whole shebang you can just pick and choose whatever tracks you want. And I've also noodled with the actual running order of the music. That's something that is really important, the way you enjoy the record if you want to plug your headphones in and go into Halford world for 50 minutes. It's an enormous amount of material and a great opportunity of Halford fans and metal fans to investigate all these songs.