Rob Halford Says He Is Not Jealous Of Black Sabbath

Judas Priest lead vocalist Rob Halford recently gave an interview to The Arizona Republic and declared that he was not envious of Black Sabbath by recalling the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions.

Especially since its rising fame in the ’80s, Judas Priest is one of the most influential metal bands worldwide. The group has created many records and sold over 50 million copies internationally. The sixth album ‘British Steel,’ released in 1980, gained the band considerable commercial success. They announced their name in the music scene and started to receive many praises.

Although Judas Priest was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice in 2018 and 2020, the band could not achieve winning either of them. The band members and many other rockers thought the band deserved to be inducted regarding their contributions to the metal scene for decades.

The group did not lose hope and encouraged their fans to vote for them for the upcoming nominations. The band did not only want to achieve it for themselves but also to be a good representation of metal music. Later,  the group received an award for their ‘Musical Excellence,’ which made them technically an inductee of the Hall of Fame despite their absence from the 2022 class of inductees.

During a recent interview, the band’s vocalist Rob Halford stated that he initially felt a little bit pissed when the band earned the ‘Musical Excellence’ award instead of being directly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Metal God mentioned that although he was satisfied with the title from time to time, he questioned the situation again afterward. Halford thought if Black Sabbath was an inductee, so should Judas Priest. However, the vocalist noted that he did not consider it out of envy because he wasn’t jealous of Black Sabbath.

Rob Halford responded when asked about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction:

“Well, yeah, I was pissed. I was a bit pissed. At the end of the day, does it matter? Some days, I go, ‘No, it doesn’t matter. We’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Be grateful. Shut the hell up.’ And then there are other days where I’m like, ‘God damn, why did they give us the Musical Excellence Award?’ because it sounds very grandiose. ‘The Musical Excellence Award, reserved for blah, blah, blah.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I want to be with that bunch of musicians over there that have got the performance or whatever it is that they’ve got.’

I don’t know why they gave us the Musical Excellence Award. I have no clue. I just felt a little bit like, ‘Well, Sabbath got this. So why can’t we have that?’ Not that I’m jealous of Sabbath. I’m just talking about this tag that they give it. Why do they put these tags on the damn thing? Why don’t they go, ‘Welcome, you’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,’ and leave it at that.”

As he revealed, Rob Halford questioned much about having the ‘Musical Excellence’ award instead of being directly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He even made a comparison between Black Sabbath and his band. However, as he explained, Halford questioned this not because he was jealous of Black Sabbath but because he thought Judas Priest was worthy of this induction as well.