METAL MASTERS

Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, Mötorhead, and Testament have joined forces for this summer’s Metal Masters tour, and here, in a world exclusive, the frontmen of all four bands reveal what it takes to be a real defender of the faith

By Jon Wiederhorn
Photo by Travis Shinn

Trust us: It’s not easy to coordinate the schedules of four heavy metal icons. Fortunately, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, Heaven and Hell singer Ronnie James Dio, Motörhead mastermind Lemmy Kilmister, and Testament belter Chuck Billy are excited enough about their upcoming Metal Masters tour that they’re willing to juggle their plans and convene in Los Angeles for a cover shoot and roundtable interview. Unfortunately, the only time they can all make themselves available is the decidedly un-metal hour of 11 A.M. on a Sunday morning.

Even then, time is short. Halford has to split by 1:30 to catch a flight to New York, and to make matters even more stressful, it’s now 11:30 and Kilmister is still MIA. As the seconds tick by, this writer waits with a knotted stomach, trying to fight back mental images of Lemmy snoring away in bed, empty liquor bottles strewn across the floor, a pair of biker chicks curled tightly around him.

Then, Motörhead’s finest abruptly staggers through the front door and heads straight to the beverage table, where he pours a couple of ounces of Coke into a plastic cup. He then unscrews a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, fills his vessel to the brim with the Tennessee whiskey, and takes an audible gulp.

“This is probably the first time Lemmy has ever been anywhere before noon,” marvels Halford, clearly unconcerned that Kilmister’s absence might have put the kibosh on our cover story. Dio and Billy, who have been standing in a corner of the room talking about Dio’s recent excursion to Skywalker Ranch to be filmed by George Lucas’ special effects team for an upcoming video game, are similarly unperturbed.

In retrospect, it’s obvious why Kilmister’s tardiness was about as troubling to these guys as finding an improperly folded towel in a hotel bathroom. The Metal Masters have already experienced all the highs, lows and interpersonal blowouts that the often-cruel music industry can dish out. During Halford’s first 19 years with Judas Priest (starting in 1973), the band established the razor-edged sound and leather-clad look of the new wave of British heavy metal, but he later split acrimoniously with the group in 1992 (allegedly because his bandmates wouldn’t let him pursue a side project), not returning until 2003. Ronnie James Dio’s work in Black Sabbath put the band back on the map after the 1979 ousting of Ozzy Osbourne, but internal friction was such that the singer would quit the group not once, but twice. Motörhead’s dizzying and furious songs predated ’70s punk and lay the foundation for speed metal and thrash, while in the late ‘80s, Testament were an integral component of the second wave of thrash metal, alongside bands like Exodus and Overkill. Yet both bands lost key members and had to endure seemingly endless lineup changes. And all four groups struggled through the grunge, alternative, and nu-metal eras, during which time most lost their major-label deals and could secure contracts only with independent record companies of limited resources. But regardless of the obstacles, the metal masters fought on, playing clubs, amusement parks, and anyplace else that would book them, convinced that their time would come again.

And now it has. Back in 1992, when metal mags were putting Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden on their covers, even Nostradamus, the clairvoyant subject of Judas Priest’s sprawling new heavy-metal opera of the same name, would have been hard-pressed to predict the eventual resurrection of old-school metal, but over the past few years, fans have developed new appreciation for classic sounds. Whether it’s the strong use of vintage metal in videogames and soundtracks, the rise of bands like Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold, who wear their ’80s metal influences on their guitar straps, or something else entirely, one thing’s clear: New metal fans are exploring the history of their favorite genre and discovering the jewels of the past.

With Halford, Dio, Kilmister, and Billy all dressed in black, looking every bit the legends they are and laughing more than we might have expected, Revolver snaps a bunch of photos. Then everyone gathers around a table to discuss the rebirth of their chosen genre, the lack of star power in many modern bands, the hazards of the Internet, and, most important, why it’s essential to keep metal evil.

REVOLVER What triggered the recent surge in popularity of old-school metal and thrash?
RONNIE JAMES DIO You’ve got all these people that are in positions of power now at radio stations and advertising firms, and these are people that were fans of ours years ago. And now they’re in a position to do something significant for this genre that they love. They can get us the attention that we stopped getting before.
CHUCK BILLY Also, now you’ve got all these games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band so there’s a whole new generation getting introduced to the music. So, you’ve got 6-year-old kids listening to metal.
LEMMY KILMISTER You can’t do Guitar Hero with indie music, can you?
BILLY No, and now when they hear it, they seek out more and get to understand what we’ve done and the history of it all.

Metal Masters is the kind of package tour that could do well in every market in North America and across the world, but you’ve limited the tour to 14 dates. Why?
HALFORD Of course, all the festivals in Europe, Japan, South America, they would love this, but it’s just not practical. You have to do what you gotta do to make it a viable, umm…
KILMISTER Financial proposition.
HALFORD You gotta do that. You gotta pay the bills, and hopefully there’ll be a bit to take home at the end of the day. So Live Nation, who are putting together this tour, have been very selective to make sure that we go into the markets where we will do well. And I’m sure now from the advance ticket sales, they’d like to stick a few more dates in, but it’s a bit late now.

How have you all weathered the storm when so many of your peers have come and gone?
KILMISTER We’re not qualified to do anything else, so what choice do we have?
BILLY I think it’s just a matter of staying true to what you started and seeing it out to the end and not changing with the musical climate. Like, when the grunge scene came in, it seemed like metal fell off the planet. But we just kept forging on.
KILMISTER Yeah, but grunge didn’t actually change anything. Metal music was always just as popular; the media just decided to stop covering it, that’s all. We could sell tickets and fill venues, it’s just that nobody was writing about us. They were trying to kill us, but they didn’t, so tough luck.
HALFORD The other thing is, there is only one Motörhead, there is only one Judas Priest, there is only one Heaven and Hell and Testament. We’re not like any other bands. We created what we did all those years back and we just constantly represent ourselves. I’m sure it’s intriguing to look in and try to find out what the secret formula is, but there isn’t one. It’s just the chemistry of certain guys coming together, making the kind of songs they love. And a lot of our longevity comes down to the fans that have supported us.
KILMISTER They’re the ones who are always there to tell us if we’re screwing up. I talk to them after the show and they tell me the truth, man. And I really rely on them because sometimes you get above your station a little bit or sometimes you just get tired and you don’t bother. These kids tell me about it right on the nail.
HALFORD That’s really important—not inflating yourself to this unreachable godlike pinnacle. None of us here have done that. We’re tuned into reality and people know what we’re about.
KILMISTER That’s why kids who work in the machine shop like us. They come and see us and it sounds like a machine shop—at least we do. Anybody who does a bloody job they hate in a factory wants to escape on the weekend and go and see a rock show. And any of us here are as good an escape from that shit world that they are stuck in, and thank god we are, so they can feel 10 feet tall for 90 minutes.
DIO Ten feet tall? I’d settle for six feet tall.

Why are metal fans so much more devoted than fans of other genres?
KILMISTER Because we’re here for them and we carried on when everybody else gave up, so they stick with us.
DIO It’s a kind of music style that’s always having things thrown at it by other people.
KILMISTER The eternal underdog.
DIO Exactly. It’s a really underdog form of music because of the way you dress, how you act, what you listen to. So you’re always being put down and marginalized. The fans can really equate with us. It’s kind of this fringe thing and it pigeonholes the bands and the fans together so we feel strength with each other.
KILMISTER You get a larger pigeon.

It seems like a lot of new bands lack that larger-than-life presence that the old-school groups brought to the stage.
KILMISTER I know. It looks like you just met them on the street. That’s no fun, see? What you want is somebody that comes down from another planet that you will never possibly visit. That’s what a real good rock show is like—aliens from another world come and kick you in the teeth and fuck off quick, you know?
HALFORD I think that’s an important point. We were all around before the Internet. We were there before fax machines. When any of us would come to your town it was like this big mystery. You were like, Oh, my God, they’re coming here. I don’t know what the set list will be like, I don’t know what they’ll do onstage, I don’t know what the stage will look like. And all of that built up to the moment when the lights went down and there was the band. And now, it’s very, very difficult to recreate that. Fans know the set list in advance. They know what you’re going to look like. It’s like that pre-moment has happened before the scene takes place. Having said that, I think we’re lucky because we still do have this mystique that’s been created by the fans.

Are there just too many bands now?
KILMISTER Yeah, that’s one thing. There are bands now that would never have gotten a recording contract in the ’60s or ’70s. They would have thrown rocks at them.
DIO No, come on. I don’t think there’s any such thing as too many bands. Are they wasting their time? Of course not. First of all, they get some joy doing it. That’s the most important thing. And then if you can share that joyfulness with your fans, that’s a bonus. There’s not too many bands, there’s not too many people trying, and it’s not a dead end. Any kind of music is something that we, as musicians, whether we like it or not, should embrace, because we should be able to remember when people said to us, “No, you can’t play here. We don’t allow that kind of crap here.”
KILMISTER I remember that. I think it was last week. [Laughs]

You mentioned the Internet, which, of course, is changing the entire dynamic of the industry, from the way music is promoted to the way it’s distributed—both legally and illegally.
KILMISTER It’s too much information, man. Most people who get all this information don’t deserve that much.
BILLY I think it damages record companies as far as sales go, but for the bands, it’s almost like free promo to let the fans know we’re coming and we’ve got something going on.

But if record labels don’t sell your albums, you don’t make royalties or get tour support.
BILLY It’s true, but I’m relying on myself and my live performance. I’m out there selling tickets, putting people in the seats.
DIO If someone can give you something of value, some hacker will find a way to get it for free on the Internet. That’s just the way it is. But there’s nothing better than the amount of information you can get from the Internet. But you know, keep your fucking nose out of my business because it has nothing to do with you. You can use the Internet for all you want to, but stay out of my life. That’s the unfair part of all this. And that’s why so many musicians get to the point where they go, I don’t want to do this anymore. Everyone knows where I live, my social security number, how much I make. It’s awful the way they impose upon your privacy.
KILMISTER It’s going to get worse, too. It’s the greatest information machine ever invented, and what does the human race use it for? Child porn. You can rely on the human race, man, every time.
HALFORD Whether we like it or not, it’s too late to change it. So we’ve had to adapt. And luckily we’ve got so much tradition and history and knowledge and experience around us. It’s got to be a lot tougher for new bands. When we all started making music, your label was on your side. They’d say, “OK, lads, it might take two, three, or four albums before you get to where you want to go, but we’re with you.” Now, with a lot of young bands, the labels go, “Well, you didn’t sell 50,000 copies of your first record. You’re gone.”
DIO But I don’t think in any way, shape, or form we are or should be telling anyone, Don’t do this.
HALFORD It’s the greatest thing in the world to be in a metal band and to get on the road and be on a tour bus and travel like we do.
BILLY We get to do what we love, and there’s nothing better than that.
LEMMY Yeah, I love it, man. It’s a traveling circus.
DIO I think the important thing about all of us being here is that we are examples of what you can accomplish if you believe in what you do, and we are here to tell you not to give up.

Many metal icons have been through major lineup shifts. When you come back to a band you haven’t been with for years, or a member returns who hasn’t played with you in a decade, does that engender a new sense of discovery?
HALFORD Yeah, it’s like being back where you belong. If you end up going back to where you started, the elements of what made it all begin are still intact. So, if you’ve changed players or you’ve moved away and come back, going back to that moment is when it works best.
BILLY The chemistry is what’s great for us now. We got our original guys back after 14 years. And once we had that first rehearsal, it was like putting on an old shoe again. We were playing with confidence, everybody belongs together, and the songs you created 20 some odd years ago are much stronger and better performed now with those original guys back.

What is it about dark historical figures like Nostradamus, Aleister Crowley, and the Marquis de Sade that make such great subject matter for metal bands?
HALFORD You can’t deal with a safe character. You want a figure that has a story and provoked some kind of strong reaction.
KILMISTER Basically, you want dangerous people, don’t you? If you read history, you don’t read about the fucking Medieval agrarian reforms. You hear about Attila the bloody Hun and the Norman conquest of Britain—pretty much anything with swords and bloodshed. That’s what’s interesting.

What about bands that write about characters who are genuinely evil, be they mass murderers or corrupt politicians?
HALFORD Evil is a very, very real thing. There are evil things going on right now outside of this room.
KILMISTER Most of them in Washington, D.C.
HALFORD I don’t think evil is something that we created with metal. It was always there. We just aren’t afraid to address the issues, and we’ll give you our feelings and feedback in the message of the lyrics.
LEMMY The subject of evil is obvious for anyone with a brain. Look at the news every night. That’s evil.
HALFORD What’s really interesting is that this style of music is the only one that will address those really difficult life-crisis issues, and that puts us in a pretty exclusive department.
DIO Well, because it’s the force of the music. Jazz, country, and pop don’t have the force of metal, so they can’t address those same kinds of powerful subjects.
KILMISTER And it has to be loud. You can’t have conversations over this kind of music. At other shows, you see people in the audience standing there talking while the fucking band plays. That ain’t gonna happen at a Motörhead concert.