BLABBERMOUTH.NET
SLAYER guitarist
Kerry King says that
JUDAS PRIEST deserves to be inducted into the
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Even though artists are eligible for the
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album or single, iconic hard rock and metal groups like
PRIEST,
IRON MAIDEN and
MOTÖRHEAD have yet to be recognized by the institution, which inducted
GUNS N' ROSES in that band's first year of eligibility.
King, who has been a massive
PRIEST fan since high school, discussed the band's absence from the
Rock Hall in a new interview with
Rolling Stone. He said: "Some years, you hear who got in the
Rock Hall and you're like, 'Well, how did they get in above these other bands?' 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. They've had a 50-year career — longer than
SLAYER did, and we had a long-ass 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."
"If I were going to vote for the
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, I would totally vote for them," he continued. "Without question. First and foremost, there would be no metal without
BLACK SABBATH. But once you get beyond that, there wouldn't be a lot of metal bands without
JUDAS PRIEST. Us being one of them.
"The people who do vote are probably going to vote for the bigger bands,"
Kerry predicted. "That says nothing for
PRIEST's longevity and the things they've done. I don't know what else to say. If you're not a metal fan, you're never going to get it. If you are a metal fan, you're never going to forget it."
On February 2, it was announced that
JUDAS PRIEST is among the nominees for the
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's class of 2022. Inductees will be announced in May. The
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 2022 induction ceremony will take place this fall. The date, venue, and on-sale information will be announced later.
JUDAS PRIEST was previously on the ballot for
Rock Hall induction in 2020, but failed to receive enough votes to make that year's class.
Having been eligible for induction since 1999,
PRIEST was also on the ballot for the 2018 class of the
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but was ultimately left out of the inductee list.
Once again, the
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame has named the individual bandmembers that will enter should their group get inducted.
For
JUDAS PRIEST, they picked current members
Rob Halford (vocals),
Ian Hill (bass),
Glenn Tipton (guitar) and
Scott Travis (drums), along with former members
K.K. Downing (guitar),
Les Binks (drums) and late drummer
Dave Holland.
Last year,
Halford selected
SLAYER's
"Angel Of Death" for inclusion on
Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs Of All Time" list, telling the magazine about his choice: "I've always been a
SLAYER fan. I love this kind of extreme metal music with a band like
SLAYER and
'Angel Of Death'. They were a bunch of guys out of the Bay Area that spread this new kind of gospel of metal in this extreme form. The sheer terror of
SLAYER which hit us all like a ton of heavy metal bricks really did the same to me. And out of all of the great
SLAYER songs that I personally love to smash my head in to and with,
'Angel Of Death' — oh, yeah, baby!"