Rob Halford calls ‘Turbo’ the most controversial album Judas Priest ever made
Rob Halford calls ‘Turbo’ the most controversial album Judas Priest ever made
Judas Priest‘s frontman Rob Halford was recently interviewed by RollingStone and asked about the latest song “Rock You All Around The World” that the heavy metal pioneers have made available for streaming from their two CD live concert at the Kemper Arena at Kansas City, Kansas, USA in 1986 during their Fuel For Life tour that will accompany the remastered release of the album Turbo.
During that interview, Halford spoke about the album Turbo and the song “Rock You All Around The World.” Excerpts of the interview from RollingStone follow:
“When Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford looks back at the lead-up to the group’s 1986 album, Turbo, he says he and his bandmates were having the time of their lives. So he wrote a song about it called “Rock You All Around the World.” “It was a song of determination: That’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to rock you all around the world,” the singer says. A live version of the tune premieres here. “The song was about how Priest were the ambassadors of metal, flying the flag of metal. It was a fanfare, a call to everybody that this was our intent, which it still is. We’ve always had a real genuine belief in what we do with our metal.”
As it happened, though, the synth-heavy Turbo album became what Halford describes as “without a doubt, the most controversial album Priest ever made” because “it just had a different tone, texture, and vibe and atmosphere to anything else that we have ever done.” The group had been on a winning streak in the U.S. since 1980, when their British Steel album pushed them in all their studded-leather to the forefront of heavy metal with hits like “Breaking the Law” and “Living After Midnight.” Each subsequent record did better than the last; they even played to a reported crowd of nearly half a million headbangers at the US Festival in 1983. All it took to divide their fans was a synthesizer.
When writing Turbo – which ultimately featured the singles “Turbo Lover,” “Parental Guidance” and “Locked In” – guitarist Glenn Tipton had gotten ahold of a synth-guitar setup and drew much inspiration from its futuristic sounds. “I remember when we were just messing around with the tones and the sounds when we were in Spain,” Halford says. “We did think a bit about whether it was a good idea to use synthesizers, but we’ve always been led by our hearts, and we thought it was the right thing to do. As we’ve always done, we were looking to step into a different field, rather than be repetitive. So it might have crossed our minds that it might cause a bit of a fuss, but we don’t really let that get in the way.”
Despite dismaying some hardline fans, the album was still a big hit, reaching Number 17 on the Billboard 200 and being certified platinum.
You can read the rest of the article / interview with Halford at RollingStone.
Judas Priest‘s “Rock You All Around The World” song live at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Kansas, USA in 1986:
Rock You All Around the World (Recorded at Kemper Arena in Kansas City) [Audio]
Get Turbo 30: http://smarturl.it/Turbo30RT?iqid=vevo About the album:Originally released in 1986, Turbo features all the hallmarks of classic Priest on trac…
Judas Priest‘s “Locked In” song live at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Kansas, USA in 1986:
Judas Priest – Locked In (Recorded at Kemper Arena in Kansas City) [Audio]
Get Turbo 30: http://smarturl.it/Turbo30RT?iqid=vevo About the album:Originally released in 1986, Turbo features all the hallmarks of classic Priest on trac…
Judas Priest‘s “Out in The Cold” song live at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Kansas, USA in 1986:
Judas Priest – Out in the Cold (Recorded at Kemper Arena in Kansas City) (Audio)
Get Turbo 30: http://smarturl.it/Turbo30RT?iqid=vevo About the album:Originally released in 1986, Turbo features all the hallmarks of classic Priest on trac…