JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford has confirmed to New Zealand's Stuff that he is finally working on his autobiography. "It's been rattling around in my head forever," he said.

"As you move on in life and have had the wonderful good luck, fortune and gratefulness to spend 50 years in a glorious band like JUDAS PRIEST, the main thing is you want to be to tell your side of the story from the horse's mouth, as opposed to something that has been knocked up by somebody else from a bunch of interviews and so forth," he continued.

"Just because of the way I am and because I'm the lyricist of the band — a bit like my mate Bruce [Dickinson, IRON MAIDEN's lead singer] — I think mine will end up like 'The Lord Of The Rings'. Between my early childhood, adolescent years and the place where I'm at now, I think we're talking about three heavy metal tomes."

Halford also said that JUDAS PRIEST would be ideal fodder for a Hollywood biopic, similar to QUEEN's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and MÖTLEY CRÜE's "The Dirt".

"I think JUDAS PRIEST has had a very interesting life," Halford said. "We've certainly got some stories to tell. We've certainly had a lot of incidents on the road that's for sure," he adds, also pointing to the similarities between himself and QUEEN frontman Freddie Mercury.

As for who would play him? Halford isn't sure. "Who could be the 'metal god'? I haven't got a clue. I thought Rami [Malek, who won an Oscar for his performance in 'Bohemian Rhapsody'] did a fantastic job of Freddie's persona, charisma. But I'm sure there's another actor out there who could get the leather and whips and chains on."

JUDAS PRIEST will return to the United States this spring for a run with fellow classic heavy rockers URIAH HEEP. The 32-date trek will kick off on May 3 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida and wrap on June 29 at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.