KARLA TALLAS - SHARED TREASURES HARD ROCKER | Page 4

Judas Priest, Graspop Metal Meeting 2008
BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, Sweden Rock 2008
well. I created my editorial team mostly from
friends I had known from shows or previous
collaboration. For understandable reasons,
Doro symbolically became the godmother of
HARD ROCKER magazine.
with my request. I don’t think they even
contacted JUDAS PRIEST’s management, so I
immediately took to writing to JUDAS PRIEST’s
record company in London. Unfortunately,
they referred me back to the representative in
“my” region. But I wouldn’t accept the fact that
I wouldn’t get the headline interview I wanted
right from the start. So I started searching on
the Internet and got in touch with a close friend
and co-worker of Rob Halford who was very
friendly and helpful. Everything was solved
very quickly and the interview happened for me
just a short while later on one Friday around
midnight European time. Rob Halford called
and patiently answered all of my questions
without limiting the time. I was so happy and
satisfied with the interview, no matter the fact
that it took place really late at night – I had
no need to sleep as I started rewriting the
whole thing immediately after. Visiting the
hometown of singer Doro Pesch was another
part of my plan. Years of mutual collaboration
had turned into a great relationship between
the two of us. We visited Doro together with
my photographer and experienced one
unforgettable weekend in Düsseldorf. Doro
showed us around the town and introduced us
the places connected with her childhood and
the beginnings of her career. We also visited
her home and met her mother! Our visit took
place just a few months before Doro’s show
I was experiencing the most amazing time
of my life up to this point, from the creative
point of view, as I got started with preparations
for the first issue. I enjoyed every single step
and moment while working on it. These were
the last five months of peace and tranquility
in my life before a period of several heavy
years. I still had no clue about the things I was
supposed to go through and deal with. Step
by step I prepared the content for the first
issue, where I chose the heavy metal legend
JUDAS PRIEST for the cover and an interview
with their front man Rob Halford as the first
headline article. I sent my interview request to
the band’s representative for the Czech market
– and surprisingly received an answer with
the question “What is the name of the JUADS
PRIEST front man you wish to interview?” It felt
so strange that they didn’t know the names
of the band members, especially such well-
known names, if they were working for them,
let alone asking a journalist for it without even
trying to search for the name in their catalogue
themselves. Soon after I received another
message that it would be impossible to comply
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