Rob Halford, best known as the lead vocalist of Judas Priest, opened up about the first time he had the opportunity to join the legendary band, Black Sabbath temporarily replacing Ronnie James Dio, and the story of him convincing Tony Iommi to play brand new songs.

Legendary musician Ozzy Osbourne was on a farewell tour in 1992 and he declared that November 15 would be his last performance. To celebrate this finality, Black Sabbath was booked as the opener, but Ronnie James Dio took the invite as an insult and promptly left Sabbath once more. Thus, Rob Halford joined Black Sabbath for only two shows for the first time.

During a recent interview with ‘Three Sides of the Coin,’ Rob Halford opened up about his excitement about first time with Black Sabbath and revealed that he actually brought up the idea of changing the setlist in order to play songs that the band has not played for such a long time.

Halford stated that he brought a new perspective as a fan of Black Sabbath, furthermore, Tony Iommi, the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of Black Sabbath, was indeed interested in changing the list and playing new songs the band never played before.

Here is what Halford said:

“I was the kid in the candy store when I worked with Sabbath the first time in Costa Mesa. Tony Iommi called me up here to the house in Phoenix and said, ‘This is what’s going on, would you help us out?’

I’m saying: ‘Yeah, mate, I’m ready.’ Because that’s what we do; we help each other out when possible.”

He continued:

“And I was going through the setlist with Tony and I said, ‘Have you thought about doing ‘N.I.B.’ or have you thought about doing this or that?’ And he goes, ‘God, I haven’t played those songs in ages!’

I said, ‘Well, just let’s have a go. Are you interested in the idea?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, I’m always interested!’

So that’s how we went out and played some of those songs that Sabbath had never played before – because I’m a fan of Sabbath, and that fan perspective is a very important one.”

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