SLAYER guitarist Kerry King has praised JUDAS PRIEST as being one of the pioneers of heavy metal and says that they definitely deserve to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
King has been a huge JUDAS PRIEST fan since his high school days and discussed the band’s upcoming potential induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a new interview with Rolling Stone. Kerry 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 were among the nominees for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s class of 2022. The final list of inductees will be announced in May. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 2022 induction ceremony will take place this fall.
This is JUDAS PRIEST’s third time on the ballot.