SLAYER guitarist Kerry King says that JUDAS PRIEST deserves to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Even though artists are eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album or single, iconic hard rock and metal groups like PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN and MOTÖRHEAD have yet to be recognized by the institution, which inducted GUNS N’ ROSES in that band’s first year of eligibility.
King, who has been a massive PRIEST fan since high school, discussed the band’s absence from the Rock Hall in a new interview with Rolling Stone. He said: “Some years, you hear who got in the Rock Hall and you’re like, ‘Well, how did they get in above these other bands?’ So it seems basically like a popularity contest rather than, ‘Do they deserve to get in there?’ Because JUDAS PRIEST deserve to be in there. They’ve had a 50-year career — longer than SLAYER did, and we had a long-ass career — and they’re still playing when they’re all healthy. So they’ve got longevity on their side. They were a darling of MTV, when MTV came out. And I probably couldn’t count all the hits — or what the common person would call hits.”
“If I were going to vote for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, I would totally vote for them,” he continued. “Without question. First and foremost, there would be no metal without BLACK SABBATH. But once you get beyond that, there wouldn’t be a lot of metal bands without JUDAS PRIEST. Us being one of them.
“The people who do vote are probably going to vote for the bigger bands,” Kerry predicted. “That says nothing for PRIEST‘s longevity and the things they’ve done. I don’t know what else to say. If you’re not a metal fan, you’re never going to get it. If you are a metal fan, you’re never going to forget it.”
On February 2, it was announced that JUDAS PRIEST is among the nominees for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame‘s class of 2022. Inductees will be announced in May. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 2022 induction ceremony will take place this fall. The date, venue, and on-sale information will be announced later.
JUDAS PRIEST was previously on the ballot for Rock Hall induction in 2020, but failed to receive enough votes to make that year’s class.
Having been eligible for induction since 1999, PRIEST was also on the ballot for the 2018 class of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but was ultimately left out of the inductee list.
Once again, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame has named the individual bandmembers that will enter should their group get inducted.
For JUDAS PRIEST, they picked current members Rob Halford (vocals), Ian Hill (bass), Glenn Tipton (guitar) and Scott Travis (drums), along with former members K.K. Downing (guitar), Les Binks (drums) and late drummer Dave Holland.
Last year, Halford selected SLAYER‘s “Angel Of Death” for inclusion on Rolling Stone‘s “500 Greatest Songs Of All Time” list, telling the magazine about his choice: “I’ve always been a SLAYER fan. I love this kind of extreme metal music with a band like SLAYER and ‘Angel Of Death’. They were a bunch of guys out of the Bay Area that spread this new kind of gospel of metal in this extreme form. The sheer terror of SLAYER which hit us all like a ton of heavy metal bricks really did the same to me. And out of all of the great SLAYER songs that I personally love to smash my head in to and with, ‘Angel Of Death’ — oh, yeah, baby!”
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