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ON THE ROAD WITH... FREAK ROB HALFORD “Sushi With The Metal God” Chicago, Illinois - 1/27/05
When it comes to food I’m a walking garbage disposal. I’ll eat just about anything at any time except for one thing…sushi!
Halford was passing through town with a friend of mine from Epic Records tagging along, so he gave me call around noon and asked me to set up a good Japanese dinner for later that day. Being Chicago’s unofficial Ambassador of Metal, I called around and ended up making reservations at a joint called Kamahachi on a stretch of Wells Street just south of North Avenue in the heart of Chicago’s “Old Town”. Mission accomplished, I collected Jimmy from a black jack table at Harrah’s and ninety minutes later we were downtown searching for a parking space. I was good and ready for a beer by the time we got inside and it’d been a few years since I’d had an ice-cold Sapporo with a hot shot of saki on the side. The bartender hooked us up pronto and the first sign of trouble became obvious as the beers were going down like water. We had just slammed our fifth shot when he arrived. I didn’t see him walk in but I could tell by the blank expression that fell over Jimmy as he stood there holding his shot of saki in front of his half-open mouth. You see, Jimmy’s a diehard Priest fan and I purposely forgot to tell him Halford would be there so this was completely unexpected. “Look at all the facial hair you’ve sprouted there Freak, you must have finally hit puberty.” Halford deadpanned as he removed his jacket and a dirty, green baseball cap. “Yup, just last week, thanks for noticing.” I replied as we shook hands smiling. Jimmy was still frozen with the shot of saki levitating in front of him and I could see his mind trying to process the situation which, he would later tell me, he thought might be some sort of elaborate hallucination brought on by the saki which he’d never sampled before. Dinner was better than expected since the steak teriyaki was actually served cooked and the beers just kept on coming. We talked all things Priest as we ate, listening to stories from the old days up to the historic meeting at the kitchen table that led to their reunion. Halford talked about Ozzy taking ill in Camden New Jersey and how nervous he was when Sharon asked him to stand in. Laughing, he admitted to completely screwing up the lyrics to “Paranoid”. I asked him about the movie, “Rock Star”, which is supposedly based on his life, but his only comment was that he never launched into the full-blown hissy fit like the movie portrayed. He spoke of the 1981 Harley Davidson he rides out on every night that has less than a hundred miles on it because it’s only used on stage. “There isn’t even gas in it Freak, I just roll it down the ramp while the sound of a bike comes through the p.a.’s.” Rob, the bike has a backing track ? It’s lip-synching...errr...gear synching? Well I never thought of it that way, but I guess you’re right, it is pulling an Ashlee Simpson isn’t it.” He talked about unintentionally “outing” himself to an MTV camera crew and being worried about the backlash that never really came. “They asked me some question about homosexuals and metal music or something like that and I began my reply with well, speaking as a gay man… and I saw their jaws hit the floor. It was quite comical really but the cat was definitely out of the bag.” It was one of the best nights I’d had in years. It was just a bunch of old-school metal heads sitting around trading stories and forgetting about the ugly side of things for a while. We finally broke camp with Rob agreeing to stop by the radio show at 94.7/The Zone in the morning on his way to O’Hare. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the cover to the Judas Priest box set and handed it to Jimmy. “You gotta get something signed don’t you?” “Hell yeah,” he smiled handing it to Rob as he climbed into a taxi. “See you in the morning Freak.” said Halford as he closed the door. “Right on man...” was all I could think of saying and just like that the Metal God was gone. | ||
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But when the Metal God Rob Halford is choosing the restaurant, I’m knuckled up to Kim’s K-9 Korral if that’s where he wants to go. 