“Glory hallelujah, there’s another metal band in now!” Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, the self-branded Metal God, declared via Zoom from his home in Phoenix. “That’s the blessing we’ve all been waiting for.”
Judas Priest -- pictured in its current incarnation -- will receive a Musical Achievement Award during the Nov. 5 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Los Angeles Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford’s feeling about the band’s upcoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honor is succinct.
“I’m in a good place now,” Halford, 71, says with a chuckle. “I was OK and cool about everything until I read something by somebody I know and that I respect, about ‘Why aren’t they being given the Performer or whatever title instead of this?’ And I was like, ‘You’re absolutely right!’ So I got pissed off for a couple of days, and then I let that go.
That musical sojourn began in Birmingham, England, just a year after Black Sabbath formed in the same musical hotbed. Priest fomented for a good five years before settling into its lineup and making its debut album, 1974′s “Rocka Rolla,” with Sabbath producer Rodger Bain. “And how amazing it is for a band to really search for those opportunities within the genre of heavy metal? So I think the acknowledgment of Musical Excellence is a really sweet addition.”