In a new interview with Audacy Music, Rob Halford spoke about JUDAS PRIEST’s “charity” version of the BLACK SABBATH classic “War Pigs”, featuring SABBATH frontman Ozzy Osbourne, which was released in late September. All profits of Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd and Epic Records in the U.K. from audio streams, downloads, and physical sales of the recording will be donated to The Glenn Tipton Parkinson’s Foundation and Cure Parkinson’s. Rob said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “When we first came up with this idea of making what we call the JUDAS PRIEST heavy metal style of ‘War Pigs’, we knew we had to tread carefully because there’s such a beloved song for SABBATH fans, Ozzy fans all over the world. So we wanted to make sure that we didn’t go too far away from the original, classic concept idea. So the band worked really hard to emulate what Tony [Iommi, SABBATH guitarist] and Bill [Ward, SABBATH drummer] and Geezer [Butler, SABBATH bassist] and Ozzy did together, but at the same time give it our own identity. Scott [Travis, PRIEST drummer] did his best to pay homage to Bill — Bill’s style of drumming. The same with Ian [Hill, PRIEST bassist] on bass for Geezer. Richie [Faulkner, PRIEST guitarist] did a fantastic job with his guitars, as did Glenn [Tipton, PRIEST guitarist].”
Halford added: “It’s really weird, because my voice in that song is in the same kind of tone or range as Ozzy, which makes it work even better. It really feels like it was destined to be.”
Referencing the fact that PRIEST released its original take on “War Pigs” on July 2, three days before Ozzy’s blockbuster retirement concert, “Back To The Beginning”, took place at Villa Park in his hometown of Birmingham, United Kingdom, Rob said: “But, yeah, it was a privilege and an honor to be able to add our contribution to that amazing day at the Aston Villa football ground.”
Asked when Ozzy recorded his part for the “charity” version of “War Pigs” with JUDAS PRIEST, Halford said: “He did his part after we sent all the tracks and files over to Sharon [Osbourne, Ozzy’s wife and manager], and then all the metal magic happened. And it was great, ’cause he heard the final part before the idea of bringing Ozzy in on to the track came about. And it was Sharon’s idea. It was a great idea. She said, ‘Is there any way we can get Ozzy on here?’ And we thought, ‘This is just gonna be insane, if we can get Ozzy to be in the track as well,’ because then the idea of making it a charity single came into being. All the contributions are going to Cure Parkinson’s, which was Ozzy’s big foundation. And then, of course, Glenn Tipton’s foundation. So, the fact that they both approved it, especially Ozzy, who allegedly was just sitting there smiling, happy that his kind of Birmingham brothers, because we were both born and raised in the same neighborhood, we had a chance to do something together. And for me as a singer, it was especially powerful and moving to be able to sing alongside Ozzy on that track… We were just happy that we could make this whole thing go up to another level. It was already doing great things as it was with the PRIEST interpretation, but to have Ozzy connected to it just made it even more spectacular.”
PRIEST was unable to appear at “Back To The Beginning” on July 5 in Birmingham, United Kingdom because the band was scheduled to perform at SCORPIONS’ huge hometown 60th-anniversary concert at the Heinz Von Heiden Arena in Hannover, Germany on the very same day.
“It was a really difficult thing to say, ‘I can’t do it,’ but that was just the way the chips fell on that particular event,” Rob told Full Metal Jackie’s nationally syndicated radio show. “However, we were there in spirit, as we said in that brief little thing that we said for Ozzy on the big video screens. And probably even more important, the PRIEST homage to BLACK SABBATH with our — it’s not really a version; it’s JUDAS PRIEST playing BLACK SABBATH’s ‘War Pigs’ to about as close as we possibly could. ‘Cause you don’t mess with a song like that. You give it the sounds that you have with your guitars, with your drums, with your bass, with your voice, and you do it in respect, and you do it in a way of saying thank you for BLACK SABBATH and what they did and what they leave us with with their great music.”
Regarding the PRIEST version of “War Pigs” featuring Ozzy, Rob said: “When Sharon said, and this is just so beautiful, when she approached me with this idea, she said, ‘I love your version of ‘War Pigs’. Is there a way we can get Ozzy [on it as well]?’ I said, ‘You’re asking me? This is gonna happen.’ So we were able to make it work. So you get Ozzy singing a line, and then I’m singing a line and Ozzy’s singing a line and I’m singing a line, and it’s the first-ever time in my entire life that I’ve been able to do a duet with Ozzy. And I’m so eternally grateful and blessed and grieving that I was able to do that. But when you hear it, it’s just colossal. If you think that you’ve heard the one experience of PRIEST’s ‘War Pigs’, but when you hear PRIEST’s ‘War Pigs’ with Ozzy singing on that track, it’s just going to a really special place.”
Asked by Full Metal Jackie if he had a story in his experiences with Ozzy that spoke to who he was as a person beyond the concert stage, Rob said: “He gave everything on stage. When he walked out on the stage, he was always beaming. He loved his fans with such an extraordinary passion, but that existed offstage as well. Whenever I’d see him, if I went to see a show, the first thing he would say to me was, ‘Did you have a good time? Did you enjoy yourself? Was it great?’ And so that part of him as a person — he was always giving stuff. He was always giving out. He wasn’t a taking kind of a guy. He was always pushing stuff forward, paying it forward, whatever that expression is. So that part of Ozzy that we probably didn’t see much of existed when he wasn’t on stage.”
Halford continued: “He was an extraordinary man. And I think that opportunity that you had through Sharon [Osbourne, Ozzy’s wife and manager] and working with ‘The Osbournes’, which was the first-ever reality TV show, he became our friend. You may not have ever met Ozzy, but you knew him as a family guy, and you knew him as being — he’s like us. There’s Ozzy on stage, but look at him at home. And I think that that’s what drew him even further into us with our love for Ozzy Osbourne and everything that he’s left us with.”
This past August, Rob told Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station about Ozzy’s passing: “Oh, man. I got a call the day [Ozzy’s death] happened. I just put the phone down in my hotel room in — I think I was in Leeds, in England, and I just curled up in a ball and bawled my eyes out for hours. I just couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it now. I’m still grieving, like so many people. And then we had a show the next day. So, God, how do you process all of this tragedy, all of this love, because I’ve never seen such an outpouring of love. And we did the show and we came to the song that we’ll be playing when we come to see you guys — it’s called ‘Giants In The Sky’, from the ‘Invincible Shield’ album — and that song talks about people that we love in music that have moved on to this beautiful place. We reference Lemmy [MOTÖRHEAD] and Ronnie [James Dio] and Paul Di’Anno [IRON MAIDEN] and Jill [Janus from] HUNTRESS and Chris [Cornell from SOUNDGARDEN] and all of these greats, Janis Joplin, Freddie Mercury. And then for that show we added Ozzy at the end. And I said to everybody, this just so much to try and comprehend and so tough, but Ozzy would say, ‘Let’s party. Let’s rock and roll. Let’s live it up. Let’s enjoy.’ That was in his heart, his soul, and his spirit. Whenever we did shows together, he would always say that to me after, ‘Did you have a good time?’ ‘Yeah. Yeah.’ ‘Did you have a good time? Did you really have a good time?’ The stuff he pushed out from himself to his fans to everybody, the generosity, the caring, all of the incredible things that he did in music, he was the embodiment of kindness in that respect.
“So it’s great that we are talking about him now and we should keep talking about him forever, like I always talk about Ronnie, I talk about Lemmy,” Rob added. “These are all friends of mine. And we have to celebrate — we have to celebrate. That’s the way of helping you through the grief. You think about the memories, you think about the joy, you think about the good times, and that’s what we will always do with Ozzy.”
Asked if he remembered the last time he had a conversation with Ozzy or the last time he was in contact with him, Rob said: “No. We used to text occasionally. ‘Cause he’s another guy I was in awe of. I’m still in awe of Alice [Cooper]. [Laughs] ‘Oh my God. He’s Alice Cooper.’ And I used to feel the same whenever I was in Ozzy’s presence, because he had this larger-than-life personality. It’d been a while since we’ve been in touch. But, again, I just have the wonderful memories of the two opportunities I was able to sing for him with SABBATH. And then this recent opportunity to cover ‘War Pigs’ [with PRIEST], which we still play at the start of our show, which is one of the greatest metal songs ever written. So that connection will never be severed in that respect.”
JUDAS PRIEST paid tribute to Ozzy during the band’s July 23 concert at Scarborough Open Air Theatre in Scarborough, United Kingdom. Introducing the aforementioned song “Giants In The Sky”, Rob acknowledged the BLACK SABBATH frontman’s death a day earlier, saying: “Okay. Look, it’s been tough, the last 24 hours, right? It’s been tough. But he would want us to be doing this. He would want us to be together, he would want us to be having a good time, which is what we’re doing right now. We love you, Ozzy.”
After a brief pause amid chants of “Ozzy! Ozzy! Ozzy!”, Halford continued: “This next song is all about him and all of the other greats that we’ve lost. Their music lives forever. They used to be down here on the earth plane. Now they’re in the sky plane, as we call it. This is ‘Giants In The Sky’.”
During the song — a tribute to musicians now gone — the screen displayed images of the likes of Ronnie James Dio, Lemmy, Freddie Mercury, Taylor Hawkins and Christine McVie, finishing on two gigantic images of Ozzy.
A few hours after Ozzy’s passing was announced on July 22, JUDAS PRIEST released the following statement via social media: “Our hearts are broken like millions around the world. Words can’t express the love and loss we are all feeling.
“Sharon, may God surround you and your beautiful family with love, peace and light.
“Ozzy, you will never leave us — your music is eternal. God blesses you now more than ever after you blessed us all through your magnificent life.
“Rob, Glenn, Ian, Richie & Scott”.
In August 2023, Halford picked BLACK SABBATH’s classic 1970 self-titled debut album as one of the albums he’d be willing to listen to in perpetuity if he found himself stranded and alone on an island. He said: “I would have to go with BLACK SABBATH, the original ‘Black Sabbath’ album that I think is the motivator for all great things in heavy metal.”
Back in 2020, Halford broke down his top 10 favorite albums in an interview with Rolling Stone and explained how they helped make him who he is. Among the records included on the list was BLACK SABBATH’s debut. At the time, Halford said about his choice: “They were local guys from the same neighborhood, the same neck of the woods as PRIEST. We literally grew up together, inventing this great music that we love and cherish so much called heavy-metal music.
“I chose the ‘Black Sabbath’ album just because, like so many bands, your first one or two records really establish who you are as a band,” he explained. “It’s a bit like PRIEST with ‘Rocka Rolla’ and ‘Sad Wings Of Destiny’; ‘Sad Wings Of Destiny’ becomes the one we love so much because it becomes defining. With ‘Black Sabbath’, here was the first example of what heavy metal music should sound like, just the texture, the tone, the structure of all of the material, Ozzy’s very unique voice. It’s just become a very important record in the discography of BLACK SABBATH.”
Halford joined SABBATH for two gigs to support Ozzy Osbourne on his last shows for the “No More Tours” tour in November 1992 in Costa Mesa, California after SABBATH’s singer at the time, Ronnie James Dio, refused to take the stage. Rob also performed with SABBATH members Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward on August 26, 2004 at the Camden, New Jersey stop of Ozzfest after Ozzy came down with an “attack of bronchitis” and was unable to take part in the concert.
Asked which SABBATH tune he’d most enjoying performing with the band, Halford told The Georgia Straight: “Oooh, that’s a good question. Um, I’d probably say the actual song ‘Black Sabbath’, which is, to me, the most evil song that’s ever been written. [Laughs]. It’s very fucking scary. There’s something very malevolent about that song. It’s just the whole — it’s the way it starts, and then it’s almost deathly quiet, and then that opening line: ‘What is this I see before me?’ You know, I just get goosebumps thinking about it now. And when I sang that song live, it makes you feel really… Wow… I can’t describe it. It’s just very overwhelming, the emotion is very overwhelming. And when you see Ozzy singing it you can see him change, you know, his whole demeanor, he just changes as a person to sing that song. It’s really spooky.”