For over 40 years, Rob Halford has been one of the most singular figures to emerge from the metal scene, and while some of his contemporaries have struggled to age gracefully, Halford is still out-performing many singers a quarter of his age, and his recorded output is as vital now as it has ever been. When we catch up with Halford, he informs us that he’s currently "freezing his tits off in Halifax, Nova Scotia", the latest stop on Judas Priest’s Redeemer Of Souls tour. By the time that you read this, they will already have closed the UK leg with a headline appearance at London’s Brixton Academy. "We’re coming home again and it’s so important for us to come home and see a lot of our fans who have been with us since day one," says Halford. "Going back to certain venues is great, like Brixton, where I remember Priest playing in the ’70s, is something I always look forward to."
When the conversation moves towards his choices for the Baker’s Dozen, one thing becomes immediately obvious: he is nothing if not passionate. Though some may say that many of his picks are predictable, Halford peppers his Baker’s Dozen with a few unexpected curveballs. As he says: "All of these bands are what I call game changers. All of these bands made something very special and made something important happen in music, and in rock & roll in the wildest sense of what that means."
Redeemer Of Souls is out now on Epic/Columbia. Judas Priest continue their tour on December 4 at Lofbergs Arena in Karlstad, Sweden; for full details and tickets, head here. Click on the image below to begin scrolling through Rob’s choices, which run in no particular order
