Rob Halford remembered the understated discussion that confirmed his return to Judas Priest in 2003, saying the moment was “so British.”
It came after he’d written an emotional letter to his former bandmates, telling them how he felt about his life and career following his 1992 departure from the group, which he described as the result of “miscommunication” in 2020.
“I was living in San Diego at the time, and I really missed the band” Halford told Metal Hammer in a new interview. “I went to a coffee shop … sat outside with some blue paper and a blue envelope
, and poured my heart out into what was six, seven or eight pages of where I was at and what I was feeling. How much I missed the band, you know. It was a really intimate and personal letter.”
He sent the note to the band’s management team then “just let it go … at least I had got it out of my soul, out of my system.”
He explained that “it’s really damaging if you hold things in; it’s damaging to your mental health … you’ve got to find a way to bring those things out, so I poured my heart and soul into this letter.
I found out later that this was all part of the journey back, because the guys all read the letter and they said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
The members of Judas Priest later convened to talk about an upcoming box set, Halford noted. “We talked about this song and that song, and the artwork, and blah, blah, blah, and the final question was, ‘So, are you coming back?’ ‘Yeah, I’m back.’
‘Okay, good.’ And everybody left! … It was so British, you know. You know how blokes can be, you know, don’t make a fuss … it was so blokey! But it was beautiful. … I was back, and the rest is history!”
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Seminal creations like “Prowler,” “Remember Tomorrow,” “Running Free,” “Phantom of the Opera” and “Iron Maiden” combined precocious metallic sophistication with punk’s crude insolence for a combustible musical cocktail.
Even the band’s soon-to-be-iconic mascot, Eddie, sported a haircut halfway between a punk rocker’s Mohawk and a head-banger’s flowing locks – proof of the unspoken crossover between both scenes.
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Key songs like the blazing “Motorcycle Man,” anthemic “747 (Strangers in the Night)” and the immortal title track quickly elevated Saxon to headliner status across the U.K. and Europe (at one point, Ozzy Osbourne opened for them), remaining in their sets – and listeners’ hearts – for decades to come.