Judas Priest rocker Rob Halford has opened up about his choice to go public with his diagnosis of prostate cancer, saying he hopes to encourage other men to get checked out for the disease.
Speaking to Spain’s Mariskal Rock, Halford gave an update on his cancer battle after discussing it in his book Confess, saying “It’s in remission. I count my blessings — thanks to God. It was a time when… You know, timing is everything in rock and roll and heavy metal.
“And, of course, this was going on during the pandemic — the initial stages of the pandemic — so the world was completely closed down.
Halford continued, “Priest would have been on a bit of a hiatus anyway, because we had just been around the world three times with Firepower, so we were gonna be on a kind of a break although we were writing for the new album. And so I was able to take care of three things, really — promote Confess, do some writing with the band before I came back [home] to Phoenix, and then get this cancer business sorted out.”
“It’s just a miracle what they can do with health care these days; it’s absolutely remarkable,” he added.
“So in my story, my main message is to guys everywhere around the world, when you get to a certain age, it’s very important that you get your prostate checked, your bloodwork checked, get a colonoscopy. It’s all these things that old blokes like me go, ‘Wait, wait, wait.’ That’s the worst thing to do.
“So that was part of the reason I wanted to push the message out. And the fact that it’s been out for a while anyway — it’s been out since last September in the final edition of the Confess paperback — so it was gonna surface anyway.”
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Halford also discussed fellow band member Richie Faulkner’s recovery after he suffered a cardiac aortic dissection during the band’s performance at the Louder Than Life festival in September.
“Along with my issues and just talking about the way that incredible things have happened in my lifetime with medical science, especially when you think about what Richie has just been through recently and the miracle doctors, surgeons, nurses, everybody that have brought him back to us, these people are just unbelievable,” Rob said.
“Everything’s relative in life. And you never get through life by yourself; you’ve always got people with you helping you along the way. The fans have helped Priest along the way for our entire 50 years.
“And in other areas of your life, particularly with your health, people are there ready to help, people are there ready to fix you, to get you released for the road again and do all the things that you wanna do.
“So, yeah, I feel good,” Halford added.
“I feel positive. Richie feels good. He feels positive. I spoke with him just a couple of days ago. He sounded great on the phone. We had a long chat about the tour and all the things we’ve gotta do still with Priest. The journey never ends.”
You can read more about this topic on the Metal Observer.
Check out ‘Painkiller’ (Live at Louder Than Life) by Judas Priest:
