You don’t get the name “Metal God” without having a few years in the music industry under your belt. So when Judas Priest‘s Rob Halford was recently interviewed by Twisted Sister‘s Jay Jay French for The French Connection podcast (heard below), it was no surprise that the host picked Halford’s brain about the wisdom he’s collected over the years, including the best piece of advice he ever received about the music industry.
Halford credited another sage rocker with plenty of wisdom and experience, KISS‘ Gene Simmons, for serving up this nugget that’s served him well over the years, especially when it comes to the response about his music from the general public and critics.
Halford recalled, “We have a great friendship with Gene [Simmons] and Paul [Stanley] from KISS. And Priest were out on this big tour — we were invited to open up for KISS — and I was just talking to Gene about the music business, and he goes, ‘Let me just say this: It doesn’t matter what they say about you, as long as they’ve got your picture and they spell your name right.'”
The singer elaborated, “Especially in music, there are so many opinions, and there are so many different points of view, it’s out of your control, and you really have to figure things out, because the way that some of the negativity can intrude into your own personal life — ‘You suck’; ‘I hope you die of cancer’; all this horrible stuff — you’ve gotta learn how to deal with that. You see it particularly in popular music with younger people.”
He continued, “When young people get famous quickly, how can they handle it? You need experience. You need wisdom. And so that simply message from Gene, I still remember it: ‘It doesn’t matter what they say about you, as long as you get your picture in and they spell your name right.’ And that has some validity.”
Though Judas Priest are between albums at present, Halford has remained in the spotlight this fall while promoting his Confess autobiography. The book is currently available to order at this location (As Amazon affiliates, we earn on qualifying purchases).
Hear Rob Halford on The French Connection Podcast