In a new interview with U.K.’s Planet Rock, Rob Halford spoke about Judas Priest‘s upcoming appearance at the 2026’s Bloodstock Open Air. The band’s performance at the event will coincide with the 40th anniversary of the group’s controversial Turbo album, and the 50th anniversary of their second LP, Sad Wings Of Destiny.
Discussing Turbo, The Metal God said (as per blabbermouth.net), “You’ve got 30,000 metal maniacs singing ‘I’m your turbo lover’ [at Priest shows now], but when that album came out, everybody wanted to throw it in the bin. ‘What is this?’ ‘This ain’t metal.’
You know how a lot of bands — we go through different moods, different textures, different feelings as you progress. And what I love about Priest is we can be a Painkiller, be a Turbo Lover, be your Invincible Shield. So, the fact that Priest is able to kind of create all this kind of music, but still put the heavy metal label on to it is important.
But I am happy that Turbo is embraced. I listened to it for the first time in years just a few days ago, and I look at the videos that we made, and we all had hair. My hair went south; it went into the Gandalf region. But it’s a good album. It was really well made. Yours truly was going through some difficult moments in life, but here I am by the grace of God and so on and so forth. But it’s a good album…”
Back in 2017, Halford told The Rock Brigade (as per blabbermouth.net), “…There was a period in the early ’80s when PRIEST was literally banging out a record every year and a world tour every year. How did we do that, I don’t know. It was just that we were running on fire, we were having the times of our lives, we had deadlines to meet, we had an incredible thing going with the label.
So here’s the deal. Turbo, the middle of the 1980s, right? We had a little bit of time to kind of pull back and take our time to make this record. So we were in a different place. I mean, I was in a different place, because I had so much coke up my nose, I don’t know how I got through every day of the week, because I was raging at that point, personally. What I’m trying to say is, America in 1986 and the mid-’80s was… wherever you went, there was incredible things happening in rock and metal. I always kind of reflect as the ’80s, particularly in America, as being one of the greatest decades for our kind of music. So we were wrapped up in all that, we were wrapped up in all that excitement and good times and party-party-party. And I think that we were just… we were making the record. The bulk of the record was made in America. Going down to Whisky, hanging out on the [Sunset] Strip, in Miami… Man, it was an absolute blast. And I think we were just… We were loving that moment, you know. The band was having a great time, and there was a lot of that in the music on Turbo.
28 Responses
Parental Guidance is actually kind of Stonesy, so if I picture Jagger singing it, I can get into it. But that record is actually overrated, but it has its moments; Reckless is one of their best songs.
Turbo Lover, to me, is them trying to write Rebel Yell Priest style
Wow, that is a very interesting, and somewhat poignant theory. It’s funny, because Rebel Yell is my favorite Idol song-LOL!
I bought this with my 13th birthday money.This and Honeymoon Suite “The Big Prize” (which is still one of my fave albums classic). I don’t remember any backlash over “Turbo ” though. In fact the D.Js who were playing it on the radio were bragging about how innovative it was, with the guitar synthesizers. Now it all sounds completely dated. The whole album sounds like a soundtrack for a low-budget movie. I also didn’t care much for Painkiller euther . My favorites Sin After Sin through Screaming For Vengeance
Jeff,
I am with you on Painkiller. As for the song itself, I like the music, LOATHE the vocals and Touch Of Evil is a decent song.
SFV is my all time favorite record, followed by Sad Wings of Destiny, British Steel and Hell Bent For Leather. After that, not sure, maybe Defenders?
Point of Entry was Priest making an adult contemporary metal record; a great experiment that could only happen in 1981, a time when commerce still thought the public had a brain. So it’s Jackson Browne, Billy Joel, and Springsteen making a metal record. It’s grown up, it doesn’t pander to some idiot fantasy of putting studs on and thinking you’re a metal warrior…Priest were actually going to ditch the metal image altogether …they were all in their ’30s when that actually meant being an adult. But, it didn’t sell like they wanted, and they wrote another record, scrapped it, and just went with their gut, and we got Screaming for Vengeance where they actually put the metal intensity of youth into an intelligent commentary on nihilism. But then Rob ran out of ideas lyrically – maybe it was the drugs he was taking – and went back to fantasy, and S&M, and I really don’t think he ever wrote lyrics on the level of Screaming for Vengeance ever again.
In my humble opinion, SFV is a masterpiece. For the band’s older material, I feel the same way about, Sad Wings Of Destiny.
Victim Of Changes,is one of my all time favorite songs, just a phemom, and some of the live performances, are just jaw dropping.
As for Point Of Entry, yes, it was a bit on the melodic side, but how is Don’t Go, not semi heavy, and of course, Solar Angels?
Finally, British Steel has quite a few commercial sounding songs: Living After Midnight, Breaking The Law, United, and even another of my other all time favorites, You Don’t Have To Be Old, To Be Wise, is melodic, with the outro being “borrowed” by Motley Crue for Looks That Kill.
Rob is a great singer, and he relies too much on his voice and his gift for melody to write…lol…some shite lyrics …sorry, look he fooled me too….
Solar Angels, that is the cut that does say, “we’re a British metal band first and foremost..” they write a killer metal song, an updated Technical Ecstasy vibe, Rob can actually one up Ozzy sometimes, which made Priest the best, their “one upsmanship”…..any band, any day of the week from those Brummie roots.
I was never a lyrics snob, so it was never something that moved the needle, unless it was the record player 😉 The only time, I would ever take notice of lyrics were, if they were particularly clever or super cheesy and eye rolling.
Let’s face it, hard rock and metal, has never been known for their esoteric lyrics (for example, Roth‘s, when he was in Van Halen, some of his lyrics were downright, non sensical). If any of the songs had thought provoking lyrics, then it was just icing on the cake, but never a priority. It was all about the music and the delivery.
For me, melody was always the most important quality, anyway, Even The Beatles, had some foolish lyrics, that many wanted to interpret as metaphors for something more profound.
It’s like modern art, there isn’t always a deeper meaning. Sometimes, it is just a toilet seat glued to a blank canvas, and the artist, or in this case, the musician, is laughing, because they know people are trying to make mountains out of molehills.
Half the time, the writers are an alternative universe, from substances, and don’t even know what the heck they are writing, themselves.
Very true, drugs, laziness, and I agree, we’re not looking for Shakespeare or anything, just some effort….lol…”when you bake the cakes you bake” or whatever he’s singing on Locked In, if it sounds like a Shake and Bake commercial….it’s just too much.
I kind of agree with I’m Still Emotional about Halford’s lyrics, but that’s not important to me. What is important to me is Halford’s melody of the lyrics and his delivery of them. Halford’s voice is an instrument, itself, and it’s one of the reasons, for me, that really makes Judas Priest songs great heavy metal songs. His voice is just so powerful! Listen to the scream at the end of “The Sinner” off “Unleashed in the East”. Or his vocal range on the song “Painkiler”. IMO, Halford’s voice made “Painkiller” the perfect definition of a heavy metal song….great guitar playing, killer lead guitar work, excellent drumming, and awesome vocals in different ranges.