Rob Halford

Transcribing Is a Bitch: The Collected Craig Hlavaty Interviews

My last official day at the Houston Press is tomorrow, so these past two weeks I have been sifting through my body of work here at Rocks Off, almost seven years of words. I've been gleefully overdosing on nostalgia here at my desk, and I have (almost) no regrets. I'll have some more words on my depa ... More >>

Lita Ford: Still Living Like A Runaway

In the '80s, Lita Ford was one of the most prominent female voices in hard rock. With hits such as "Kiss Me Deadly" (which was named the 76th "Greatest Hard Rock Song Of All-Time" by VH1), "Back To The Cave," and "Close My Eyes Forever," she was on a winning tear. Plus she still had (and has) oodl ... More >>

Do You Remember Rock N Roll Comics?

Ilko Davidov's documentary film Unauthorized: The Story of Rock N Roll Comics is finally available on DVD today after having been originally released in 2005. Hopefully you remember Rock N Roll Comics, the series of illustrated unauthorized biographies that Todd Loren put out to the rage of many unt ... More >>

Life Out Loud: Remembering Jim Marshall's Amplifier Legacy

I was about 12 years old and in the hallway outside the gymnasium of my school when I heard it. Someone had a guitar and he was playing it LOUD. I knocked open the double doors and a friend was wailing on a beautiful cherry sunburst Les Paul and it was so damn LOUD. I got a little closer and there ... More >>

Multiples of Black

Houston heavy-metal lifers Helstar celebrate their 30th anniversary in style.

Last Friday Night: Glen Campbell At Arena Theatre

After reading Chris Gray's review of the last Glen Campbell show here in Houston back in September at the Stafford Centre, I was expecting the worst at Campbell's Friday night show at the Arena Theatre. The country legend had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's a few months before the Stafford show, a ... More >>

Hail, Santa: The Top 10 Metal Christmas Carol Covers

​Rocks Off likes to believe that Christmas is such a merry holiday, even some of Satan's most stalwart servants can't help but get into the act. Of course, it could be that heavy metal musicians record Christmas music for the same reason as Mariah Carey: Because there's a crapload of money to ... More >>

Santa Killas Are Coming: Our Annual Christmas Card From The Insane Clown Posse

​Out of some of the most proudest moments of my five-year tenure here at the Houston Press - interviewing Rob Halford, talking to an agitated Chuck Berry on a couch backstage after a gig, shaking hands with Charlie Sheen - one of the best days ever was finding a Christmas card in the mail from ... More >>

Saturday Night: Judas Priest At The Woodlands

Photos by Jay Lee​Judas Priest Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion October 15, 2011 Saturday night, at 10:15 or so, a euphoric chill went up Aftermath's spine. Coupled with the cool weather, standing in the presence of Judas Priest at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion was overwhelming, so much ... More >>

Turbo Lovers

British metal icons Judas Priest are still living after midnight — but aren't retiring.

Dio Disciples Keep Ronnie James' Metal Flame Alive

When Ronnie James Dio succumbed to stomach cancer in May 2010 (some reports say it occurred here at M.D. Anderson), heavy metal lost its arguably greatest voice. And with a career spanning decades in bands like Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath/Heaven & Hell, and his own Dio, he left a lot of material to ... More >>

Idol Beat: American Idiots

Spoiler alert: the smug one wins.​Thanks to Shea Serrano for taking the bullet yesterday. After what felt like eons, the 10th season of American Idol lurched to its inevitable anticlimax last night. It was as especially torturous affair, stretching well over two hours and mixing performances ... More >>

Eddie Trunk, Ultimate Metalhead, Writes Metalhead's Bible

​Eddie Trunk's Essential Hard Rock and Heavy Metal By Eddie Trunk Abrams Publishing, 240 pp. $19.95. If hard rock and heavy-metal journalism have their own Eddie Murrow, it's Eddie Trunk. Via his web site, as a co-host of VH1 Classic's That Metal Show, and his programs on both terrestrial and ... More >>

Five More Heavy Metal Christmas Carols

​Last year's unholy Christmas metal list was so popular, we decided to reach back into our quasi-Santanic bag and find five more songs for you to blare while trimming the tree and wrapping presents. We made our list too late to catch Rob Halford's Christmas album, Winter Songs. Otherwise it ... More >>

Freddie Mercury's Musical Stepchildren, Darlings

​Today marks 19 years that the world has been without Queen front man Freddie Mercury, who was taken from us on November 24, 1991. He died of AIDS complications, a disease he kept hidden from the world until just a day or so before his death. He was the first major, epic rock star to be kill ... More >>

Will Hip-Hop Ever Get Over Its Homophobia?

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday (that isn't a national holiday) Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​Homosexuality in hip-hop is a polarizing talking point. So much so, in f ... More >>

Midwinter Graces

The sounds of Christmas 2009 from Bob Dylan, Sting, Tori Amos, Rob Halford and more.

In Wishing Ronnie James Dio a Speedy Recovery, Our Life as a "Holy Diver"

​Metal legend Ronnie James Dio is one of those musicians you've probably always been aware of, even if you haven't counted yourself a huge fan. Rocks Off can sympathize, for while we've personally gone out of our way to seek his music, we've always taken it for granted that Dio would be there, hov ... More >>

Aftermath: Judas Priest and Whitesnake at Verizon Wireless Theater

Photos by Eric Sauseda​Rust never sleeps, and metal never ages. Not when it's being worked over by Judas Priest's hammer and tongs, anyway. Friday night at Verizon, the Birmingham blacksmiths smelted a sold-out, juiced-up, colors-sporting crowd - metal bands always have the best merch - with ... More >>

Inquiring Minds: Judas Priest's Rob Halford

 Tonight, Judas Priest, led by the inimitable metal god Rob Halford, hits the stage at Verizon Wireless Theate less than a year since the leathermen last graced Houston. They came to the shed out in the Woodlands last August, headlining the "Metal Masters" tour with Motorhead, Testament and Hea ... More >>

Men of Steel

Three decades after a metal classic, Judas Priest keeps "Livin' After Midnight."

Summer Sounds

Enough shows to keep concertgoers busy all season long

Top Ten Metal Albums of 2008

In a year worthy of your rage, metal delivered in spades. What with the economy circling the drain and Sarah Palin coming down from the tundra and then refusing to go back, 2008's been the kind of year that really makes you want to smash your head into walls or punch random strangers in the face. Go ... More >>

Aftermath: Masters of Metal at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Judas Priest's Screaming Seer Rob Halford

Master of Metal

Judas Priest Prophesy Free Tickets to Woodlands Show; Nostradamus Reviewed

Get Lit: W.A.R.: The Unauthorized Biography of William Axl Rose, by Mick Wall

Highly Anticipated Albums of 2008

Never Opening Near You

Music biopics Hollywood won't make

Mama Mia

Mary's crowns the mother of all Montrose

Queer Eye for the Country Guy

Have today's C&W stars been consulting with the Fab Five?

The Sorrow and the Pity

In a year of big-screen sadness, our critics comfort those who triumphed

Rock Around the Cock

The Datsuns zoom out of New Zealand with Zeppelinesque flair

The Kids Aren't Alright

Fledgling director Jonas Akerlund spins the next hip dope flick

Played Out

The filmmakers have consumed all the standard clichés and yakked them up in the humorless Rock Star

Texas Thunder

Stay true to Pantera. They're true to you.

Made to Suffer