Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford has delved into the musical heroes that have inspired his own musical journey.
The rocker recently sat down with Revolver’s Fan First podcast, a series that interviews iconic rock artists about musicians that were a formative influence in their own craft.
During the episode, interviewer Christina Rowatt brought up a passage on Led Zeppelin from Halford’s autobiography, Confess.
“I’d like to start with a passage from your book,” Rowatt began. “Which I quote, ‘Led Zeppelin blew me away. I’ll never forget lying down on my bed in the beach shell between my two speakers hearing ‘Whole Lotta Love’ for the first time.
“The left-right, left-right interplay between Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, back and forth between the speakers amazed me.’ So how did that vocal power and intensity affect you in a primal way?”
“All musicians are inspired by fellow musicians, it’s what we do. That’s the great thing about rock ‘n’ roll,” Halford said.
“We’ve all got our heroes, and it’s great that you’ve referenced that moment because I didn’t have a stereo record player, it sounds nuts, but I got an amplifier and I somehow figured out how to do stereo left and right.”
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“And it was just mesmerizing, that stereo was being used by Jimmy that way for Led Zeppelin, and that was one of my first loves of that musical experience, that metal magic that we can have,” Halford continued.
“But Robert’s [Plant] voice particularly, then and now, was a great springboard for me as a singer because I realized that the human voice has so many different possibilities.
“And I don’t think I was singing that way when I heard Robert sing. Obviously, I was in my early metal years but I’m sure in jams, rehearsals, and whatever else I was doing, I emulated his expressions.”
Halford went on to acknowledge that the raw, emotive performance of Robert Plant and Janis Joplin profoundly influenced how he approached finessing his own performance in Judas Priest.
“I think also you’re never old enough for new memory or a new thought, and what I realized from those particular performers was that you’ve just got to let your inhibitions go,” Halford said.
“You’ve just got to show it off in the purest emotional sense and not be afraid. And there’s something very powerful about watching either Robert Plant then or Janis Joplin screaming her heart out at Monterey.
“Women weren’t supposed to perform like that, that was the way it was back in the day. And so, all of those great performers, for me, singers particularly, were just an exciting opening that led to all these great adventures that I had later on.”
You can listen to the interview in full below:
