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In a brand new interview with Chris Warburton of BBC Sounds, Rob Halford spoke about his decision to leave JUDAS PRIEST in 1992 before going on to record and tour with the aggressive metal group FIGHT and the industrial project 2WO before his return to traditional metal with the eponymous band HALFORD in 2000 and eventual PRIEST comeback in 2003. Asked how he looks back on that period, Rob said: “I was in a different place there professionally, especially associated with some of the business connections that I had at the time.
“We finished that glorious ‘Painkiller’ world tour, which was a real slog,” he continued. “All of these tours that we do, they’re incredibly long and tiring, but we do it because we love to do it; we love to see our fans around the world. But prior to this ‘Painkiller’ tour, we’d gone through that really, really difficult time with the Reno trial” — referring the infamous 1990 trial in which PRIEST was accused of inserting subliminal messages into its music — “so we had that kind of filtering behind us in the background as we forged ahead with this incredible ‘Painkiller’ record and tour.
“Hindsight, call it what you will, we should have said, or I should have said, at the end of that ‘Painkiller’ tour, ‘Guys, I’m gonna go off for a couple of years and just chill and maybe do some stuff.’ But that’s not the way it turned out. We just fell into this terrible miscommunication. Bands are like families — you fall out in your family. It took about 10 years for us to repair that, particularly on my part. But there you go. At least I was able to get out of my system the things that I was searching for as a musician. I had my great times with the FIGHT band, the 2WO project, the HALFORD project. It all led me back to the place where I was destined to be as a musician, which is to be with JUDAS PRIEST.”
FIGHT‘s initial lineup was completed by JUDAS PRIEST/RACER X drummer Scott Travis, Russ Parrish (a.k.a. Satchel of STEEL PANTHER) on guitar, Brian Tilse on guitar and keyboards and Jay Jay on bass.
FIGHT released two studio albums in the early 1990s — 1993’s “War Of Words” and 1995’s “A Small Deadly Space”.
The 2WO project issued the much-maligned “Voyeurs” album in 1998 via Trent Reznor‘s Nothing Records label and sold poorly before Halford returned to his roots and formed the aforementioned HALFORD.
Although Reznor is given “executive producer” credit for the “Voyeurs” disc, the project is largely the work of Halford and co-writers John 5 and Bob Marlette.
Halford‘s autobiography, “Confess”, will arrive on September 29 via Hachette Books. The book has already been described by the U.K.’s The Telegraph as “one of the most candid and surprising memoirs of the year.”
