Rob Halford Says ‘You’ve Gotta Be a Fighter’ Through Health Struggles
Judas Priest singer Rob Halford has cited bandmate Glenn Tipton along with late icons Lemmy Kilmister and Ronnie James Dio as inspirations for their approach toward their health issues.
He was speaking to SiriusXM about the status of Tipton, whose Parkinson’s disease has forced him to stop touring with the band. “You've gotta be a fighter," Halford said. "It takes me forever to get out of bed. My fucking back! But you do. You do whatever you've got to do. It's like anything in life. When you have the thrill and the pleasure to do something that means so much, you'll do whatever you've gotta do to get to that next gig and play that next song. You don't really think about it.
“And Glenn was humble enough to say, with the challenges that he's going through, he says there are people that are in a much more difficult place than where Glenn is. And that's just the right philosophy to have. There's always someone that's dealing with a bigger challenge than you are. You've gotta have perspective. You've gotta find the balance and the harmony."
You can watch the interview below.
Halford noted that he was with "with Lemmy just a few weeks before he passed. Ronnie was singing almost till the end. It's just a beautiful thing that it makes you think about. Again, it puts things into perspective."
Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner described colleague Tipton as a “beacon of hope.” “If anyone's going through anything, if you look at people like Glenn, like Tony [Iommi], if you're thinking, 'I don't wanna get in a van' or 'It's too cold,' and you look at these guys, 50 years later, doing what they're doing with the challenges they're facing, it separates the men from the boys," he said. "So hats off to 'em – they're heroes.”
Tipton made the first of his promised guest appearances on Priest’s new world tour earlier this week. Asked about how he was planning to remain involved with the band, he said, “It's a question that I can't really answer. I'm gonna see how things go. Medication is improving. Each day is different for me – some days, it's worse; some days, it's better. But I didn't wanna compromise the best heavy metal band in the world. So, to be on the safe side, Andy [Sneap] is in there now, and what will be will be. And that's all I can say.
“But I love this band," he concluded. "It's been my life. And maybe I'll do some more writing and recording – maybe even some more touring. It's an unanswerable question, really. It's in the lap of the metal gods.”