The frontman answers your questions on metal’s punk rivals, working with Dolly Parton, his top Priest song and his time working in a Walsall sex shop

Was the first heavy metal record the Kinks’ You Really Got Me (1964) , Steppenwolf’s Born to Be Wild (1968 ), Black Sabbath’s Black Sabbath (1970 ) or something else? VerulamiumParkRanger
Gotta be Black Sabbath. I love the Kinks and Steppenwolf but by definition they’re not really metal. In terms of riffage, I’ve always defined metal to the greatest extent with the bass and it’s a big, meaty, Black Sabbath-style riff – a West Midlands sledgehammer ! That’s what Tony [Iommi] was doing, so it’s definitely Black Sabbath for me.

How did you feel about punk at the time, and is it weird that as time has gone on, punk and metal have become pretty interchangeable as far as their fanbases go? johnny5eyes
It was exciting for Priest to be around when the punk movement exploded from London. I remember seeing the Sex Pistols at a club in Wolverhampton, and I thought they had some metal vibes to them – the attitude and some of the riffs. I welcome anything like this because it’s the true essence of what rock’n’roll should be all about. The unfortunate thing that happened in the industry was that suddenly all the labels and the media focused exclusively on the Sex Pistols, the Damned, the Clash. All great bands, but metal was kind of pushed out of the picture. For a while, there was this mantra that metal was dead. You can’t squash a whole movement because something else comes along, but we needed punk in the British music scene.

As the heavy metal legends release new album Invincible Shield, the 72-year-old singer will answer your questions

With a truly extraordinary voice that can go from piercing falsetto caterwauling to burly pronouncements in the space of a single song, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford is one of the defining vocalists in heavy metal – and as the band gear up to release new album Invincible Shield, he’ll be answering your questions.

Halford’s history with the Midlands group stretches back almost to their very earliest days, joining them in 1973 and recording their debut album Rocka Rolla the following year. Somewhat in the shadow of punk rock for the remainder of the decade, they carved out a niche in the growing new wave of British heavy metal, particularly due to Halford’s theatricality and the band’s highly influential look: all studded leather and S&M chic.