Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford underwent a prostatectomy in July 2020 to remove cancerous growths, and then a series of radiation treatments in early 2021 before receiving the "all clear" by doctors. Now in an interview with Full Metal Jackie, Halford reveals he's in remission, but adds that he should've listened to his doctors about catching the cancer earlier than they did.
"Guys and girls, you've gotta look after yourself. You've gotta keep this temple, you've gotta keep the heavy metal temple clean and ready to deal with whatever comes your way. And one of them, for me, was my prostate cancer issue.
"Let me quickly tell you: I should have listened to my doctors, because my doctors were saying, 'Hey, this PSA [prostate-specific antigen] level is a bit high.' [I said,] 'I've gotta do a tour. I'll do it when I come back.' So I missed a couple of opportunities whereby if I had had the treatment earlier, the treatment wouldn't have been as difficult as it was. But, hey, we got through it. I had a wonderful team of medical people that looked after me in Phoenix."
"It happened while we were in the full-on pandemic. So I was in the valley having the prostate removed and then [laughs] two weeks of the catheter, and then [laughs], of course, a little bit of radiation, a couple of months of radiation. But I came through it [thanks to] these beautiful, incredibly talented people. And I'm in remission. But I will throw this out — guys, get your blood test done, get the checks done. We're going through colorectal cancer month right now [in March]. So please look after yourselves. It's so important. Onward and upward."
Judas Priest is currently working on the follow-up to their 2018 record Firepower.
