Rob Halford said the blues album he’s wanted to make for years is finally underway.

The Judas Priest singer decided to bring back the band that recorded last year’s Christmas album Celestial. He’d been talking about the prospect of laying down a blues record since at least 2015 and discussed the idea again last year.

“I’m happy to say that this blues project that’s been in my mind for the longest time, it’s actually started to take root now,” Halford told Antihero during a recent interview. "My brother Nige and my nephew, Alex, a bass player – same as his dad, Ian [Hill] from Priest – they’ve started knocking around some really, really, strong ideas. In my phone I’ve got 12 or more practically completed blues ideas that they put together.”

He added that they "had such a blast doing that Celestial album last Christmas that I thought, ‘Well, these guys are great musicians. Why don’t we think about this other possibility of a blues record?’ So, that’s being pieced together as we speak. I had two really cool ideas from the guys yesterday. They’re putting it together in my kitchen in Walsall. They’ve got a little studio set up, they’ve moved everything around and I go in. … I’m making a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich, and then they start noodling some blues and they’ve got some great ideas.”

Halford also noted that, while an end wasn’t in sight, the next Judas Priest album was coming together. “That first writing session back in March was absolutely brilliant,” he said. “We had a ton of ideas, and because of what’s happening now, there’s still – much like this blues record – there are still pieces being accumulated and going back and forth, but we’ll get the job done.”

He explained that the band has "many albums and hundreds of songs that could sustain us, for our tours especially, for as long as we wanted. But we’ve always felt that going through the process of writing and recording keeps you vital. You’re not living on your past glories.”

 

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