Judas Priest’s Rob Halford Says He’s a ‘Bit Pissed’ About Getting the Rock Hall’s Musical Excellence Award

Rania Aniftos
·2 min read
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Judas Priest and songwriting/production powerhouse duo Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis will be joining the Rock Hall this fall with the “award for musical excellence.”

Judas Priest is the second band to receive the award for musical excellence; the E Street Band was the first. Priest are not among this year’s class of Hall Of Fame performer inductees, which include rock hitmakers Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, new wave chart-toppers Duran Duran, hip-hop heavyweight Eminem, synth-pop duo Eurythmics, country legend Dolly Parton, R&B hitmaker Lionel Richie and pop singer-songwriter Carly Simon.

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In a recent interview with AZ Central, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford admitted to his mixed feelings about not getting honored in the performers category. “I was a bit pissed. At the end of the day, does it matter?” he shared. “Some days, I go, ‘No, it doesn’t matter. We’re in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Be grateful. Shut the hell up.'”

“And then there are other days where I’m like, ‘God damn, why did they give us the Musical Excellence Award?’ Because it sounds very, you know, grandiose. ‘The Musical Excellence Award, reserved for blah, blah, blah,'” he continued. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I want to be with that bunch of musicians over there that have got the performance or whatever it is that they’ve got.’ I don’t know why they gave us the Musical Excellence Award. I have no clue. I just felt a little bit like, ‘Well, [Black] Sabbath got this. So why can’t we have that?’ Not that I’m jealous of Sabbath. I’m just talking about this tag that they give it.

“Why do they put these tags on the damn thing? Why don’t they go, ‘Welcome. You’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’ and leave it at that,” Halford concluded. “It’s as though we got this far. We’re, like, one step away, you know? I know it’s silly, but it’s just frustrating. Judas Priest are still the Rodney Dangerfield of heavy metal. They can’t get no respect.”

The 37th annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place on Nov. 5 at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, with a radio simulcast on SiriusXM’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame radio channel. The event will also air a later date on HBO and stream on HBO Max, which you can sign up for here.

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