Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford thinks the English heavy metal giants “deserve to be in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”.
Discussing his and the band’s eventful past in a new interview with NME, Halford talked about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and how he feels it needs to include more metal acts.
“I’ve always admired it,” Halford said of the Hall. “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame isn’t any different from those other institutions they have in America, like the one for football, where you’ll always get some people complaining one player deserves to be there over another.”
He continued: “Emotions always run high whenever these awards take place. But I’ve always supported it – only because of the company we’d be in. I think if any metal band deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it’s Priest and beyond that, there needs to be more metal there because there’s not enough.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Halford commented on the band’s song ‘Breaking The Law’ being played over stolen police radios during protests in New York earlier this year in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
“It’s mad over here in America right now and that was a horrible thing that happened to that guy [George Floyd] and I can understand the anger and why that [song] was chosen,” he said.
“When we wrote that song in the ‘80s in the UK, there was a lot of unrest, rioting and pushback to the Thatcher government. There was a lot of divisiveness going on, much like is happening in many parts of the world now. History tends to repeat itself unfortunately.”
Meanwhile, Halford has confirmed he is currently working on a blues album.
Speaking to the Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz podcast, the metal icon confirmed the album would be recorded with the same team he collaborated with for his 2019 Christmas LP ‘Celestial’, including his brother Nigel and the son of bassist Ian Hill.
Halford has spoken about writing a blues album in the past, and was asked by Paltrowitz if it was still a possibility. “It is, and I’ll give you an exclusive: it’s already begun,” he revealed.