JUDAS PRIEST’s ROB HALFORD Feels He’s ‘Letting Fans Down’ With Live Singing Quality Of ‘Painkiller’

Rob Halford

During a recent appearance on Talk Is Jerricho, JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford discussed his current vocal delivery, musical heroes, and more.

When asked, how did he cultivate his voice to still have such a great instrument at 69, Halford responded: “Yeah, let me just say, it’s tough for me now because I love to sing the ‘Painkiller,’ but I can’t do it as well as I did in 1991… And I always feel like I’m letting the fans down, you know? We all want to give our fans the best show that we can give, and with your voice, it’s such a part of your body, and as your body gets older your voice gets older, you can’t really do the stuff you want to do.

“I struggled with that for a bit, and then I saw some great clips of Freddie Mercury when he was singing live,” he continued. “And he would make the necessary adjustments to cover the song, and I think as long as you’re doing your best and as long as you’re getting to the places you can get to comfortably and it’s sounding good and strong, that’s all that matters.

“Having said that, as music became important to me, and as we know for most of us music becomes important as you get into your early mid-teens, you hate the world, you hate your mom and dad, you hate school, but you love the music. So I was listening to everybody.”

Focusing on his musical heroes, Rob said: “John Lennon was a big inspiration for me as a person, musician, and activist, so definitely THE BEATLES. It was great, brilliant, absolutely stellar. For me, THE BEATLES were a great inspiration.

“I didn’t really understand the voice that much at the time, but I know I must’ve been soaking that in how voices can do extraordinary things, particularly the harmonies that THE BEATLES used to do.

“So there was THE BEATLES; obviously, THE ROLLING STONES, [THE WHO frontman] Roger Daltrey, all of those early rock musicians were music was starting to get louder, so singers would have to sing louder because they didn’t have in-ears and stuff those days.

“So it was a combination of all those great artists that inspired me,” Halford added. “I’ve always said if you’re a singer, you should really try and listen to every way that the human voice can be used in the singing sense.”