It’s circulating that after the Metal Masters tour, you will presenting Nostradamus in its entirety. Is that true?
Yeah, we have been playing it in rehearsal for the set list, and when you take a track from the studio and put it into an actual live performance it becomes ten times bigger and louder. That’s been really a great feeling, because we know more than ever now that we can in actuality go out next year and play Nostradamus from front to end. We can’t wait to do that, because we already have ideas for a stage show with sets and costumes and audio and visual stuff. There are endless possibilities and again a first for Priest. We have never done that before. The fact that we know we can do it, because of the live track in rehearsal is just another confidence boost, so we want go out on this world tour for all the fans who have been waiting patiently for the last couple of years and we’ll have a great night together. Then we want to go out next year, and see what we can do. Initially doing some type of selective event-type performances—we got the Royal Albert’s Hall in London, and a number of venues around the world. my gut instinct tells me that once our fans have had time to digest Nostradamus that everybody is going to want to see the show. Then we can go off and do another world tour again. So that is another exciting moment.
What was the impetus for the spectacular lineup on the Metal Masters tour?
Amazing isn’t it, yeah. I was thinking about this the other day, because while we were in the studio Tony [Iommi] called and said, ‘Would you want to come do some shows?’ We said, ‘We’d love to, but we are hard at work with Nostradamus, so when we were looking to come back to the states, we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to go out with our mates, Tony and Geezer and Lemmy?’ Of course, Lemmy came to mind and the same with Chuck Billy and the lads, you know they have been making metal for 20- odd years as well.
So it all sort of fit perfectly, hand in glove. So you have the originators of the metal sound from Tony and Geezer and ourselves with Priest. You know it takes me about 15 minutes to drive from my house to Tony’s house. We are from the same neighborhood. We are good friends, and it’s going to be a wonderful tour. I know that journalists would love to be a fly on the wall backstage (laughs). I mean, that’s a reality show if you ask me. Everyone has got something new coming out, Heaven And Hell has something coming out, Testament has a new fantastic CD, so it’s a good tour. We are all active. We are all still writing music, still writing and recording.
Judas Priest will be performing at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ, on Aug. 9 and at Nikon Jones Beach in Wantagh, NY, on Aug. 10. For more info visit judaspriest.com
