Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford currently has 13 T-shirt designs available from Metal God Apparel, and he has plans to expand the line beyond shirts, very possibly into leather pants and biker jackets. But one thing fans probably won’t ever find on the site is the glittery silver cape he took the stage wearing on Judas Priest’s 2008 tour for ‘Nostradamus.’
“I was having my heavy metal, Gandalf moment on the Nostradamus tour,” Halford explains to Noisecreep. “That was a last-minute design, actually. I was with this good friend of ours, Ray Brown, who makes all the clothes for Priest. He also does stuff for Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi and all these bands from the ’80s that are still going. So, we were putting designs together at his place in Phoenix, and as I was leaving, I saw this roll of sparkly, shiny, mirror-type material, and I said, ‘What’s that?’ And he said, ‘Oh, what do you want to do with it?’ So, we immediately put that together.”
However, Brown had nothing to do with Metal God Apparel. Those designs were created by graphic illustrator Mark Sasso, with whom Halford has worked for years. In addition to choosing an American artist, Halford specifically wanted the shirts printed by an American company.
“I could have gone to India, or I could have gone to China, but I wanted it to stay in America for obvious reasons,” Halford says. “I dare say, if I’d of had it done elsewhere the price may have dropped a buck or two, but I think once my fans know that it’s coming from an American manufacturer, they’re like, ‘Yeah this is great, let’s support the system. Support the economy.’”
Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford currently has 13 T-shirt designs available from Metal God Apparel, and he has plans to expand the line beyond shirts, very possibly into leather pants and biker jackets. But one thing fans probably won’t ever find on the site is the glittery silver cape he took the stage wearing on Judas Priest’s 2008 tour for ‘Nostradamus.’