In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Kerry King revealed what disappointed him about Rob Halford.
The guitarist was disappointed when he saw Judas Priest during their 1981 Point of Entry tour as he explained, “The whole time before this, Halford is in his leather and studs and everything, and that f*cking tour he shows up in a f*cking jean sweatsedo; a jean jacket, and denim jeans. I’m like, ‘Oh, this guy, come on!’ It was just a letdown for me, from all the photos you’ve seen back then in magazines.”
“But yeah, Priest was killer, and he’s my favourite singer since the dawn of time,” King praised Halford. “He’s always my number one. That’s tough to say, being a friend of Ronnie James Dio, but Dio has always been my number two. Sorry, bro.”
“Some years, you hear who got in the Rock Hall and you’re like, ‘Well, how did they get in above these other bands?’” King also spoke about Judas Priest’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination in 2022. “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.”
He continued, “They’ve had a 50-year career — longer than Slayer did, and we had a long-a** 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.”
“It’s a fair statement to say there would be no Slayer without Priest,” the musician also revealed. “I don’t think Priest were our sole inspiration, but I think that’s a fair statement. If I had never heard the hit ‘Breaking the Law’ on the radio, I never might have done the homework and that might not have sent me down the direction I went.”
Slayer returned from a five-year break on September 22 by headlining Riot Fest in Chicago with a 20-song set. They played rare songs, ‘Reborn’ and ‘213,’ last played in 2014 and 1998. Their next shows are on September 27 in Kentucky and October 10 in Sacramento.