JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford says that one of his current favorite artists, pop superstar Lady Gaga, is the one that first brought up the idea of the two of them working together, but admits that he doesn’t know if the proposed collaboration will ever come to fruition.
Halford finally had the chance to meet Lady Gaga early last month after her show in San Diego (see photo below, as posted on JUDAS PRIEST‘s official Facebook page). He attended the concert with Lady Starlight, Gaga‘s longtime friend and collaborator who supported JUDAS PRIEST on tour in 2011. During their short meeting backstage, Halford and Lady Gaga discussed the possibility of doing something together in the future.
Asked by Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco, California radio station 107.7 The Bone if he was the one that started the rumor of him and Lady Gaga collaborating on a project, Halford replied: “No, she said it to me. She just said, ‘Let’s do something.’ And I went, ‘OK.’ [Laughs] I don’t know what that means: ‘Let’s do something.'”
He continued: “I’ve gotta say, all of my metalheads out there know that metal is at the heart of everything that I do, but I love to see a big show, I love to see a big production. And I went to see her show in San Diego, and it was just great to watch. It was just a very complete presentation, as far as what a good show should be about. And I love her just because, for a singer, she’s a f**king amazing singer. And then she writes all this material. She’s got a live band. I was hanging out with the band afterwards, and they’re all metalheads. And, of course, you look at her past and she’s a total metalhead. She started off strongly into rock and metal and you’ve seem pictures of her with Alice Cooper or Bruce [Dickinson] from [IRON] MAIDEN and all of these other people in metal; it just shows you that she’s committed to that. So I just wanted to go and check it all out, and it was amazing. And then she comes off stage, instantly, [she was, like], ‘Ah, I can’t believe you’re here. Give me a hug.’ And ‘Let’s do something.’ And she’s just a really sincere, complete person as a musician. But what we’ll do, and if we do it, I don’t know.”
Back in May, Halford revealed to Yahoo! Music that during one of the London gigs on JUDAS PRIEST‘s “Epitaph” tour, Gaga was planning to appear as a special guest. “Gaga called and said, ‘Can I get on the back of Rob‘s bike when he comes out and we’ll do ‘Hell Bent For Leather’?” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God! Diva moment. Please let this happen!’ But she couldn’t do it. She ended up doing a shoot in Omaha, Nebraska, that took a week.” He added: “If that isn’t a nice affirmation that someone with extraordinary talent that isn’t metal can still gravitate to the metal experience, I don’t know what is.”
Halford also reiterated his interest in collaborating with Gaga, saying: “I just love her. She has an open invite to anything we do. She’s a total metalhead. She’s really hardcore and her voice — oh my God. She has the most beautiful voice. Out of all the recent people in that genre, she is the most extraordinary, and she’s carrying it all on her back. That’s an incredible feat of success in today’s world… Everything she does when she puts on her shows is a real work of art. She pushes boundaries and expresses a lot of love and a massive investment in everything she believes. I just think that’s wonderful.”
Lady Gaga previously spoke about her love for IRON MAIDEN and BLACK SABBATH, calling the experience of seeing MAIDEN for the first time a “life-changing” event. The singer also appeared in photos with Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Alice Cooper and ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante.
