In a new interview with Loudwire, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford chatted about his viral video with James Hetfield rocking out to the hardcore punk band Turnstile.
“But I went up to the stage just to see this band Turnstile and there was James,” he recalled the gig. “I’m like ‘James, what’s up, dude?’ He’s like ‘Yeah, I’ve got to check this band out. I’ve heard so much about them.’”
“This is what we do. We’re always standing on the side of a stage when we get the chance to see what’s happening. They’re just a great band. They’re doing some very cool, unusual things in their definition of their music that they play. So we’re always checking each other out. That’s what bands have been doing since day one. We thrive on each other’s creativity and energy,” the frontman added.
Both Halford and Hetfield showed their support for Turnstile during a festival. A video from the Tons of Rock Festival in Oslo, held from June 26 to 29, captured them enjoying Turnstile’s performance from the side of the stage.
Much similar to enjoying the band’s performance, both rockers are strong supporters of young rock and metal bands. Earlier this year, the Halford praised Sleep Token as one of his current favorite rock bands. “They’re a really curious band in what they’re putting out in terms of all of these different textures. They’re very difficult to pin down. That’s what I find intriguing as a musician listening to their music. It’s going to a lot of different places, and I think that there isn’t any other band out there right now that’s able to do that,” he said of the band.
James Hetfield too spoke about younger bands in a different interview.
“But listening to the radio, I guess the newest thing that I was surprised by and really made me smile was Category 7, a band that’s kind of a collaboration of few people. I was listening to it, I’m going, ‘That voice is awesome. And it sounds very familiar.’ It was fricking John Bush [of Armored Saint], our singer that we never got,” the Metallica frontman said.
Judas Priest is currently on tour. The rockers’ next date is scheduled for September 24 in Rochester, Minnesota. The tour wraps up on December 12 in Kanagawa, Japan.