The first thing you hear is the clattering of boots—clomps which break the relative silence of their manager's New York office. Then, an overpowering presence of leather fills the room as Judas Priest guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton, and lead singer Rob Halford bustle in. In their arms are boxes of boots for the imminent Priest U.S. tour—but the leathery smells are mixing with something else, some indefinable scent not immediately associated with heavy metal rock 'n' roll bands. OMIGOD, it's salad dressing and quiche, fergodsakes, as the lads haul out their brown bag lunches. Rob Halford generously offers up some of his feta cheese and vegetable concoction. "I'm going Greek today," he announces, brightly, a warm smile cropping up, incongruous against his fierce getup.

Not to shatter anyone's expectations of Judas Priest being a rampaging quintet of metal marauders—they are exactly that, onstage—but when it comes to taking care of the offstage business, this band is about a different image, a thinking, professional one. Glenn Tipton relates on incident typical of what a band like Priest is perpetually up against when not surrounded by worshipful fans. "As we landed in Toronto, the customs guy was going through my stuff and he said, 'Do you realize what sort of scumbags listen to your music?' We meet a lot of our fans and we don't really think they're scumbags. But this is the sort of attitude that people have got when they don't know what the music involves. They say, 'Are you really into this shit?' because they haven't taken the time out to listen to it." "i couldn't believe my ears when they told me that," blurts Halford. "This is a customs official of Canada (who in no way is typical of the Canadians he meets, Rob quickly adds). It just goes to show you that there are those bigoted narrowminded attitudes. What can you say to someone who thinks that heavy metal's shit?" asks Rob, throwing up his hands in frustration. "Again, I've got no time for you."