Rob Halford predicts
that his autobiography,
due late next year, is
“going to shock you”.
“There’s no point in
putting a book
together if you don’t
have full disclosure,
in my opinion,” the
Judas Priest
frontman comments.To commemorate late
Thin Lizzy star Phil
Lynott’s 70th birthday,
the Central Bank Of
Ireland releases a
limited-edition ¤
silver proof coin
bearing his image on
November 27. Last
month, two ¤1 stamps,
one featuring
a portrait of Lynott and
the other bearing the
cover of Thin Lizzy’s
Black Rose album,
went on sale in
Lynott’s homeland.Artists who used
PledgeMusic as
a method of releasing
music are “unlikely”
to get back any
money following
the company’s
liquidation in August,
say receivers.Eagles will perform
their seminal album
Hotel California in its
entirety at shows
across the USA in
2020, accompanied
by an orchestra and
choir. The band, now
including Vince Gill
and Glenn Frey’s son
Deacon, have
announced a run of 12
dates which run from
February 7 to April 18.Saxon frontman Biff
Byford (pictured)
releases his debut solo
album, School Of Hard
Knocks, on February 21
via Silver Lining Music.
Byford is making good
progress following an
emergency triple
bypass operation that
forced the band to
postpone a recent
UK tour. Saxon have
begun work on their
next studio album.MY FIRST
LOVE
I grew up in a small
society with, like,
three streets – our
parents took care of
each others’ kids.
Somebody there
was a ‘home mum’,
so she brought in
a few of the kids
during the day
when my parents
were away
working, and they
had a cassette player in the playroom
with a Black Sabbath greatest hits
tape. That’s what got me into metal
music originally.
The first thing that struck me about
it was Iron Man. That voice in the
beginning, Ozzy with the effects – ‘I am
Iron Man’ – I was like: “What is this?”
It was like horror films, which I used
to watch on New Year’s Eve – they’d
show the old black-and-white King
Kong, which was the equivalent of
a horror film to me then, and every kid
sat up waiting because it was on at
midnight, way past your bedtime.
“Please can I watch King Kong!” And
then you sit and you’re like: “I don’t
want to watch any more!” Iron Maiden
had that effect too.
It [the Sabbath cassette] was
almost... scary. It was a cassette
recorded from a vinyl – from some
company whose early inner sleeves
had a cassette with a pirate and says:
“Home taping is killing music.” It
seems so long ago now, but that’s
what it said. This was one of those. PGBLACK
SABBATH
By Mikael Åkerfeldt
MY FIRST
LOVE
The Opeth frontman
on the greatest-hits
cassette that steered
him on to the path
of heavy metal.“How’s country
different to rock?
Less sex, more
heartbreak.”
Darius Rucker on politics, racism in the country scene,
and how there’s no such thing as too much whisky.Hootie & The Blowfish
Their commercial footprint
might have been lighter in Britain, but
there was no doubting the Stateside clout
of Hootie & The Blowfish when they broke
big with the optimistic alt.rock of 1994’s
Cracked Rear View. The South Carolina
band have been on hiatus since 2008,
when frontman Darius Rucker ducked
out to make a string of well-received
country records. But on their sixth album
Imperfect Circle, their sunny-side-up jangle-
rock and Rucker’s baritone croon harks
back to a gentler time.It’s been a while,
hasn’t it?
Yeah, we haven’t
made a record in
nearly fifteen years,
but it didn’t seem like
a long time. Once we
step in a room
together, the four
of us all fall into the
same old rut, like those kids in the late
eighties that were ‘us against the world’.
We’ve never acted like millionaire rock
stars. We still feel like underdogs. We’re
a band that got lucky and we’re just
trying to hold on to the reins.It’s a very upbeat record : do people
need that?
Yeah, when we were writing it, we were
thinking, ‘Let’s make people smile, ride
around in the car with the windows
down’. Hold On – by Chris Stapleton and
Jim Beavers – is such a perfect song for
what’s going on in the States right now.
It’s so divided, such extreme partisanship.
Will things get worse during next year’s
elections? Oh, it’s gonna be awful, the
divisiveness and rhetoric that’s gonna be
thrown around. It’s really gonna be bad
for the country. It’s gonna be a train
wreck. But it’s gonna be fun watching.Are there people who still think your
name is Hootie?
Not much any more. It’s not as bad afterthe country career. Usually when people
say it they’re trying to be jerks.How do you think country is different
to rock’n’roll?
Less sex, more heartbreak, that’s one of
the ways. The community is one thing
you have in country. Pop, rock, R& B,
there’s no community; people are all
over the country, doing their thing. But
Nashville is the centre of country music.
When I look at the country charts, I know
every single artist. They’re my friends.
And when Hootie
were the biggest
band in the world,
you’d look at the pop
charts and I might
have only met two of
the bands.As a country artist,
did you get any
sense of race being
an issue?
Oh goodness, yes. I was doing a radio
tour [early on] – and I want to point out
that the guy who said this to me is now
one of my best buddies – and one guy
said to me, straight up: “I love this song,
but I don’t think we’re gonna be able to
play it.” I said: “Why? ” And he looked me
straight in the eye and said: “I don’t think
my audience will accept a black country
singer.” To his credit, when I went to
number one, he was the first person to
come up and say: “I was wrong.” But that
was there.Your voice is still amazing. Is there
anything you can’t sing?
Ha! I don’t think I could do opera. But
I’d give it a shot. I don’t do anything to
take care of my voice. I wouldn’t smoke
a hundred cigarettes, that’s for sure.
But there’s no such thing as too
much whisky. HYImperfect Circle is available now via
Snakefarm Records.BLA
CK(^) SA
BBA
TH
: (^) GE
TTY
; (^) H
OO
TIE
(^) &
THE
(^) BLO
WF
ISH
: (^) TO
DD
(^) &
CHR
ISO
W
YOU
NG
/PR
ESS
18 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM