Judas Priest returning to Cedar Rapids

Prince once said that the key to longevity is to learn every aspect of music you can. It’s certainly a tenant Judas Priest’s Rob Halford has embraced.

How else do you explain that this band, which was founded in 1969 in Birmingham, England, still is touring the globe 55 years on, with no plans to hang it up any time soon?

To that point, the fivesome that’s rounded out by founding member/bassist Ian Hill, guitarists Richie Faulkner and Andy Sneap and drummer Scott Travis, is following up a European jaunt with a string of American dates promoting “Invincible Shield,” the band’s 19th studio outing.

The group is ready to rock the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in downtown Cedar Rapids on Saturday, Sept. 21. Judas Priest first played there in 1984 with its “Defenders of the Faith” tour and again in 1986 on the “Turbo” tour.

As a band that helped birth heavy metal, Halford views part of the band’s sticking power as an ability to incorporate iterations of the genre, ranging from speed metal to more commercial styles with synth-driven nuances, but never straying too far from their roots.

“In terms of music, I think we try to be accepting of everything that comes to you in a musical form, regardless of what that might be,” Halford said. “There is a magic in music and you can find inspiration and an influence at every level, even if you don’t really connect to it as a particular style of music that you would normally go to, like the metal maniacs do.

“At the same time, we work really hard in making the best music we could ever make. I think anything of quality sustains itself, and in going into making music with your heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears, we hopefully made another album that stands by itself on its own legs.”

That certainly seems to be the case with “Invincible Shield,” an 11-song pack driven by Priest’s signature two-guitar attack that overflows with the aggressive and heavy riffing fans have come to expect. Halford credits the producing tandem of Sneap and Tom Allom with playing a crucial role in helping this heritage act straddle the past and present. Allon has worked on a number of classic Priest albums including “British Steel,” “Point of Entry” and “Screaming For Vengeance.”

“You have to listen to people that you have trust and faith in to make the suggestions that make the song better, improved and get to the destination that you want that song to reach,” Halford said, noting Sneap’s experience working in styles of metal that Allom has produced brings a powerful combination to Priest’s music.

“Tom Allom’s tenure with Priest, every one of the greatest metal songs that Priest has played up to this point, has been overseen and produced by Tom. Listen to your producers. They did a magnificent job on ‘Invincible Shield.’ I had so much joy doing it because all I had to do was come up with the words and the melodies, which unto itself is a challenge after 50 years of heavy metal.”

Equally crucial was the continued involvement of guitarist Glenn Tipton, who joined Priest in 1974 and stayed on until he retired from touring in 2018 after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. And while Sneap has stepped into Tipton’s touring role, the 76-year-old string bender still is creatively involved with the band, a fact his 73-year-old vocalist is quick to point out.

“The knowledge that guy contains, he’s so valuable, particularly with the writing. We would send him songs and he would tell us to move this bar there and change this note to that note — my God — that’s great,” Halford proudly said of Tipton.

“His skill and experience as a songwriter, he’s still very important and a vital part of everything we do in Priest. He can still play the guitar. Not to the level that he’d like to be able to play to since that (expletive) Parkinson’s came on. But he’s the epitome of the survivor, the never surrender thing. His place in Priest still is as strong as it ever was.

“Honestly, he passed the guitar baton to Andy (Sneap) to stand in his part of the stage and Andy has been doing a magnificent job. But Andy is there with Glenn’s blessing and that should never be forgotten.”

With 19 studio albums under the band’s belt, having such a deep canon becomes a good, but challenging, issue to deal with in crafting set lists. And navigating the kind of touring schedule that eats up bands half the age of Priest means Halford has to take steps to maintain his formidable singing style along the way. That said, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers promise to throw plenty of red musical meat to their devoted fan base.

“We’re not a band that can play for three hours because my voice couldn’t take it,” Halford said. “Thank the Lord for allowing me to still be able to do what I do as the singer for Priest. I think I’m still doing the work that fans are expecting.

“But there are songs that are in the set and have to be in the set — ‘Living After Midnight,’ ‘Breaking the Law,’ ‘Painkiller,’ ‘Another Thing Coming’ and ‘Electric Eye.’ So that’s 25 to 30 minutes of the set right there. You have an hour to have fun with. When you do a deep cut like ‘Saints In Hell’ or ‘Love Bites,’ that’s just a great kind of metal memory. It also shows the scope that this band has had.”

As they continue to proudly carry that heavy metal banner forward, next year promises more surprises from Judas Priest that the band isn’t quite yet prepared to share publicly.

At this point, Priest’s indisputable legacy attracts a fan base ranging from greybeards who cut their teeth watching the band make its mark during the early days of MTV to tweens coming to shows and knowing all the words to songs that predate them by decades.

For Halford, this rediscovery of Judas Priest through events like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction and a co-headlining gig alongside AC/DC at last year’s PowerTrip Music Festival, has left him humbled, grateful and proud of what his band has achieved.

“One minute we’re playing ‘Turbo Lover’ and the next minute we’re doing ‘Rapid Fire,’ having people wonder if this is the same band,” he said. “We love to show off the fact that there is no other metal band like Priest. We don’t say that in a boastful fashion — it’s a fact.

“All of these great things we’re bringing back to you guys — and we thank you for keeping us together and alive — you call for us, and we’ll be there. It’s like that song we have off of (the album) ‘Sin After Sin,‘ ‘Call For the Priest’ and that’s what people are still doing and we still listen to the call.”