Rob Halford on Donald Trump: ‘There’s Always a Darth Vader Somewhere’
Rob Halford says he isn't a supporter of Donald Trump, and likens the U.S. President and his political divisiveness to both Adolf Hitler and Darth Vader in a new interview, saying "[It's] scary is how one person or a few people can have that much control and dictate such an outcome."
"I'm not an American citizen, but I live in this country and eventually want to become an American citizen because I love this country so much," the Judas Priest frontman tells Newsweek. "I'm not a Donald Trump supporter for a lot of reasons, but it's not only happening in America. It's happening in other parts of the world, as well, and it's very dangerous. I was born in 1951. We were still recovering from that evil bastard Adolf Hitler and the horrible things he did."
"When I was a kid, trying to make sense of the world, I would think, 'Well, maybe in about 10 years there will be no more of this.' And then it's still there," Halford continued. "It's like what threatens the Force in Star Wars. It won't fucking go away. There's always a Darth Vader somewhere, fucking it up for the rest of us. Most of humanity just wants to live a peaceful life, don't we?
Halford, who is currently touring in support of the band's latest album, Firepower, acknowledges that there is a large contingent of Judas Priest fans who will not agree with his views as they might be supporters of Trump and his administration.
"That's great. That's OK. You're not bringing that to the show," he says. "We're there to all join together, and that is the beautiful thing about a free, transparent society—which we don't appear to have right now. Some fans are completely opposite to me politically. But we can still be in the same room and have a good time and hopefully have a good discussion while respecting each other's opinions."
Last week, Priest scored their career highest debut on the charts with Firepower, landing at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, moving 49,000 units in the weekend ending March 15, based on a Nielsen Music report. The sales were bolstered in units sold by combining the LP in a ticket/album sales package in conjunction with their tour which kicked off March 13. Check out our review and photo gallery from the recent New York show here.
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