I think we all appreciate it now just how lucky we are to be in a band like Judas Priest.
To some people heavy metal is Motorhead and to others it's Judas Priest.
Hard rock for me is AC/DC, Def Leppard, Tesla, Kiss. Metal tends to be louder, ruder, darker, like Judas Priest, Slayer, Iron Maiden.
I myself identify as a recovering Blockhead. You'd be surprised how many twenty- and thirty-something hipster chicks have the NKOTB skeleton in their closet, albeit artfully concealed by stacks of Ksubi skinny jeans and ironic Judas Priest T-shirts.
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.
I can show up at a Goldman Sachs conference wearing a Judas Priest T-shirt - and I have - while everyone else is wearing the same dress.
Shortly after that, we got management problems over in England, and Judas Priest asked me to join.
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?
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.