This book is not the de facto memoir of Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, one of the English Midlands’ many great rock vocalists: that came out two years ago and is titled Confess. However, Biblical’s content more closely resembles a memoir than what it purports to be, “a bible of hard rock and heavy metal”. Split into chapters with Old Testament-esque headings which add up to a potted rock-biz guide, this is predominantly explained through anecdotes that are so specific to Halford they can only function as autobiography.

Although this means a fair degree of topical overlap with Confess, it’s no issue entertainment-wise. Again enlisting Ian Gittins as co-writer, the convivial prose style – evocative of the 90s metal press and, in its barrage of italicised, single-sentence paragraphs, Take A Break magazine – may not be to everyone’s taste. You would have to be one miserable bastard not to get a few laughs out of Biblical, though, or be charmed by the self-styled Metal God’s homely avuncularity.

The contrast played up throughout is Halford’s rarified, private jet-touring rock star life and his more earthly enjoyments of, among other things, pickled eggs and adding footnotes explaining Last Of The Summer Wine to his non-UK readership. Perhaps Biblical’s quintessential story recounts Halford in his back garden on Bonfire Night 1980, setting off an array of fireworks from that year’s Monsters Of Rock festival (unused when Judas Priest realised headline act Rainbow’s own pyro stockpile would upstage them) and almost burning down the local cricket club.