I started out myself rather late you see, I was 18.

There are a lot better musicians than me out there that just haven’t had the luck to fall into everything like I have.

I have a lot to do with the writing, and also the production, but it would be wrong of me to say that I’m the most important member of the band, because everybody is important the way I see it.

You can have a bad day, but as soon as you set foot on that stage it’s joyous.

And because of the reunion I think we’ve got more energy and enthusiasm than we’ve ever had. And it’s genuine. I think the fans can detect when you’re genuine, when you love what you do, and we love to be there on stage. That’s what we thrive on.

Shortly after that, we got management problems over in England, and Judas Priest asked me to join.

I think we all appreciate it now just how lucky we are to be in a band like Judas Priest.

A lot of bands that reunite do it for the wrong reasons. They do it for the bucks and everybody can sense it.

You have to get to know your voice and its strengths and play on those. It took me quite a long time.

Yes, we are fortunate because as a band we’ve always been on the up, always getting more successful.

My vocal ability is very limited, but I’m fortunate in that I can write the songs around my vocal limitations.

Then I decided I couldn’t just crawl in the corner and die, so I started putting pen to paper and wrote some songs. I had no idea what for or who I was going to work with. I tried to find my way and direction.

I’ve got the luxury to tailor make the songs so I can sing them.

Yeah, but on the U.S Tour we threw a new song into the set almost every night. Ofcourse, you can’t do too many new songs every night as they’ve never heard it.

I started out myself rather late you see, I was 18.

Sadly, I’ve seen a lot of bands hit that sort of peak and then eventually start supporting again, you know, which we will never do. We always put a lot of thought into the way that we are going to go, and we always change.

It’ll be basically a live album, but it will also include songs, Judas Priest songs, the audience have never heard before, because we felt we wanted to give the kids something else, something they haven’t already bought.

It was about working with other musicians, but more than that it’s about exploring musical areas that you could never do with the band you’re in, in my case Judas Priest. You could tackle musical areas and lyrical areas that wouldn’t be appropriate for Priest.

The hardest part is to travel, and to be away from your family.

We love not just Judas Priest music, but we love heavy metal and we love to get out on that stage every night and perform. It’s a joy to be able to do it.

But this is what I want to do, and it is what I will continue doing until Judas Priest finishes, which, at the moment, I can’t see that yet. It could be three years or five years, who knows?

If you’re not enjoying yourself, you can’t really look as if you are.

I’m a married man and I’ve got two children, and you have to do sacrifices.

There are right and wrong reasons for doing solo projects, and this album was done for the right reasons. At the time there was no Judas Priest and I certainly wasn’t going to hang my hat up on my musical career.