Whether that was Dokken, Van Halen or Saxon, there was something new for you to sink your teeth into every week and we would all be playing together at festivals and on tours. "When we got properly into the 80s everything really started happening it was a golden age because there was a real feelgood factor where a new superstar band could come to fruition every week. That was the start of our popularity over there, which was phenomenal.”ĥ. We ended up playing with Scorpions, Iron Maiden and Def Leppard. With British Steel and the popularity of Breaking The Law, we were able to go back to America and play as headliner for the first time, taking other bands along with us. We did get to do two shows in an open-air coliseum with Led Zeppelin, which was amazing. We’d been to America previously but played very small clubs, or were otherwise a support band for other groups in theatres. The label saw a way to bring popularity to metal and the whole thing made us properly international. That video alone makes the song worth including and that really helped us get popularity outside of Britain too. After the success of Take On The World we were given money to produce what I believe is the first-ever heavy metal concept video, for Breaking The Law. “Things were going so well for Judas Priest – and heavy metal in general – that the label really started putting their weight behind us too. Judas Priest – Breaking The Law (British Steel, 1980) You’d see them all on Top Of The Pops at that point Saxon would be on one week, Iron Maiden another… it felt like everything we’d been doing for the past decade in popularising heavy metal was really paying off."Ĥ. It was a good time in our lives and a great time for metal because the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal was taking off too. We weren’t having any of it – we’re pop stars now, we’ve got a hit single!īut in the end we relented and did play without the bullwhip and the song continued to sell, so it turned out to be the right decision I guess. She gave the producers an ultimatum: if Rob used his bullwhip during the show, then she wouldn’t perform. Were we pop stars, rock stars, metal stars? Who knew, but we were thrilled! We went on to play and The Osmonds were on and Marie started playing up. I can remember going into Top Of The Pops, sitting in the taxi with our manager and I said ‘look, how successful is this – how much have we sold?’ and when he told us it was over 365,000 I couldn’t believe it. We ended up going on Top Of The Pops and it became a hit, even getting us into the Top 20. "Against all odds, Take On The World was the song that broke us to mainstream notoriety on a national scale. Judas Priest – Take On The World (Killing Machine, 1978) Plus it describes us all – each and every one of us is a victim of change, at some point, for good or ill.”ģ. When I think about an iconic Priest song with all those metal ingredients, Victim Of Changes is the one. There were times where we did drop it of course, but it always made its way back on. It stayed with us for so long because it was hard making a setlist that didn’t include it, to be honest. We split the solos up and that version ended up on the record Sad Wings Of Destiny. Its definitely one of those hallmark songs – it started out when we were with Al Atkins but really came together once Rob joined the band and we became a four-piece. “I think Victim Of Changes stayed in Judas Priest’s sets longer than just about any other song. Judas Priest – Victim Of Changes (Sad Wings Of Destiny, 1976) Of course, back when Judas Priest starting getting gigs, we were booked as a ‘progressive blues’ band because nobody knew what the fuck we were."Ģ. There were lots of bands then and it was all about the music. The scene back then was fantastic though: every pub and club in the area – and this being the Black Country, there were a lot – was a gig, so you’d end up playing consecutive nights in Handsworth, Bearwood, at The Regis in Old Hill.
#GOD KNOWS YOUR WORTH IT SONG PROFESSIONAL#
At that point I was just hoping to become a professional guitarist and we were lucky enough to bag Al Atkins, a great local singer who looked good on-stage.
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