Judas Priest's Headbangers Ball

A CONVERSATION we wish we'd been privy to, featuring Rob Halford, the banshee vocalist of heavy metal gods Judas Priest, and Elizabeth II, the queen of England:

"She asked, 'Why is heavy metal so loud ?'

"I said, 'You have to have it loud to bang your head, Your Majesty.' "

"She sniffed at that," Halford continues, though the queen would hardly have been the first to sniff at Judas Priest or heavy metal.

So, Rob, did you wear one of those fabulous leather-and-studs outfits you started sporting in the mid-'70s, giving metal the indelible image to complement its ineradicable sound?

Halford laughs.

"No, but I was dressed in black. I still had a part of me that wasn't diminished."

All this took place March 1 at Buckingham Palace at a royal reception recognizing British music and its contribution to the nation's culture and economy. Among those attending: singers Charlotte Church, Cilla Black and Shirley Bassey; Roger Daltrey; Phil Collins; former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell; and a murderers' row of ax men that included Brian May, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page (whom the queen asked, "Are you a guitarist, too?").

And Halford, reunited with Judas Priest after a 12-year break.

"That was very surreal, going to Buckingham Palace," Halford said recently, calling from Chicago before a Priest show. "It was the first time the royal family -- The Firm, as it's called -- wanted to give a nod to the music industry in general. My mother was more excited about it than anyone else, but it was magical for me, too, because I'm a royalist. I love the royal family, for all its imperfections, but to actually meet the queen! That was a thrill and a memory I'll always cherish."

Still, Halford says, "it was a bizarre day. I flew out of Oulu, Finland, that morning -- it was about 37 degrees below zero -- and two hours later I was in Buckingham Palace talking to the queen. And the next morning, I flew back to Tampere in Finland and the next show."

Finland was one stop on a sold-out European tour that confirmed Judas Priest is back and still a commercial force. The tour that brings the band to Nissan Pavilion on Sunday is its first headlining in American arenas since the early '90s, incidentally the last time Halford fronted Judas Priest, whose other members are guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis.