Rob Halford and I at NXNE 2007

My first REAL concert experience was Judas Priest live at the CNE Grandstand in Toronto during the summer of 1986. I was dumbstruck at the scale of the spectacle I witnessed that night, and few concerts since then have even come close to matching my memory of "Priest". In the years since, my love of their music has never waivered but I somehow haven't managed to see them in all their live glory. One large consolation was that I did cover the Rob Halford interview at 2007's NXNE. An experience that reignited the fire driving me to see Judas Priest again.

This terrible oversight will change on August 13th when the Metal Masters Tour steamrolls Toronto. Yeah there's Priest headlining, and you've also got Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath fronted by Ronnie James Dio), add to that Motorhead, and (comparatively young upstarts) Testament and I start to get all stupid. This will be Metal 101 taught by Rob Halford, Tony Iommi, Ronnie James Dio and, Lemmy Kilmister. I'll be there at the very least as a fan with some really good seats. Fingers crossed that I might also be asked to shoot the show.

August 24th will also see our Jeff Barringer in Selma (San Antonio), Texas when the Metal Masters bring their tour come boot camp to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.

Remaining Tour Dates Below:

12th Centre Bell, Montreal, QUE
13th Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, ON
15th Mohegan Sun, Hartford, Connecticut
16th Post Gazette Pavilion, Pittsburgh, PA
18th DTE Energy Music Theatre, Detroit, MI
19th First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Chicago, IL
21st Zoo Amphitheatre, Oklahoma City, OK
22nd Superpages.com Amphitheatre, Dallas, TX
23rd Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston, TX
24th Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, San Antonio, TX
26th El Paso County Coliseum, El Paso, TX
27th Journal Pavilion, Albuquerque, NM
28th Cricket Wireless Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ
30th Glen Helen Pavilion, San Bernardino, CA
31st Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA