Keith Carman of Exclaim.ca recently conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST frontman Rob Halford. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

One recording a Christmas album with the HALFORD band:

"Just by association, I think that when everybody heard that the Metal God was doing a Christmas album, they had a sharp taking [in] of breath. But that's to be expected. The fact of the matter is that I've the luxury of a solo career that lets me do the unexpected. Having said that, like everybody else, I just love the Christmas holidays. I do the same things that everyone else does. In my mind, it's not that much of a stretch."

"I did this for a few reasons but the main genesis was a moment for me personally to express myself in a way that I've never done before. I just want to do what's important to me. As a musician, that's the way it should be. You stand by your choices. It just took a while to get to the point where we all wanted to do it. Once that decision was made, we ran with it.

"When you're covering such great composers, it's inspiring to have the opportunity to cover work that's already established and given various kinds of treatments. And for you to enjoy the challenge of putting your distinctive approach on the arrangements. That was important for us when we put this together: to make sure we could give it the HALFORD band stamp."

On the band's ability to pen some thematically similar yet equally epic and raucous originals for the Christmas record:

"When we first agreed to do this type of record, there wasn't any inclination to go into self-composing mode because there's so much great material already out there. But the ideas started to flow forth and we were all so excited and inspired by the music we were covering that it was natural to be motivated and noodle around with ideas that came. You feed off each other's creativity. It was unexpected but it was great. It was a treat to show that as a band, we can also step forward in the spirit of the season and make music that fits with everything else we've done."

On a potential sophomore holiday affair should the opportunity arise again:

"I had so much fun making this record. They're very uplifting songs. We'll see how it goes. The global reception has been strong so far and there were many other tracks/opportunities to cover in this vein that we didn't get to this time. If we've got enough to make full release, maybe we'll go for it."

Read more from Exclaim.ca.

HALFORD's new album, "Halford III - Winter Songs", sold 1,400 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The CD landed at position No. 26 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

HALFORD's first holiday CD, "Halford III - Winter Songs" is being released via Rob's new label Metal God Records, distributed globally by ADA Global/Warner Music Group, Fontana/Universal Music Group, Conveyor/Universal Music Canada and Sony Music Japan.

"Halford III - Winter Songs" is Rob's first solo release in more than seven years, and includes a collection of new Halford-penned tracks plus traditional holiday favorites presented with original arrangements by HALFORD (Rob Halford on vocals, Roy Z. on guitar, Metal Mike Chlasciak on guitar, Mike Davis on bass and Bobby Jarzombek on drums).

Written, arranged and recorded during 2008 and 2009, "Halford III - Winter Songs" celebrates one of the most exciting holiday periods of the year.

"Halford III - Winter Songs" debuts new HALFORD tracks "Get Into The Spirit", "When Christmas Comes For Everyone", "Light Of The World", "What Child Is This", "Oh Holy Night", "Come All Ye Faithful" and more.