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.
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Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders were them just doing whatever they wanted musically; they brought in Bob Halligan Jr. to write singles because that’s not what they were doing (then they put out a record when that was all they were doing). But you get, which I think is maybe their best song, You’ve Got Another Thing Coming, that was just this stream of consciousness that just happened after this process of making the Screaming record. So, I would agree SFV is their best record.
melody is the most important quality; you are right; but I am saying Rob sort used that as an excuse…and Priest had a punk rock aspect where lyrics are important; on Screaming we got both.