It's the duet you didn't know you needed until right now: Judas Priest legend Rob Halford and Alice Cooper have combined their considerable forces on a new Christmas single.
Money raised by My Christmas List by Rock For Children will benefit Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Centers, a non-profit organisation that provides teenagers with after-school training in sound engineering, lighting, staging and video production.
The song itself is an upbeat rock'n'roll romp in which Cooper and Halford inform Santa Claus of the kind of things they'd like to receive for Christmas, which include "a rocket balloon that can fly to the moon" and a "12-string can I can play in a band".
There's also a spoken word section in which Alice suggests that a child could ask for "a pet dragon for your yard with fiery breath that plays a mean guitar, or a creepy cool tree that can grow ice cream bars with flavours like vanilla sky and a sprinkle of stars," which feels a trifle ambitious, to be honest. Santa has only one sleigh, after all.
"Thanks, Mr Cooper!" responds a small boy. "If I don't end up with those things, from my list then what I truly want for Christmas is this."
The "this", it turns out, is "kindness and love", which is a little bit cloying, but hey, it's Christmas, so we'll let it slide.
Judas Priest's European tour kicks off in June, and includes a headline date at London's O2 Arena with Alice Cooper. Full dates below.
Judas Priest 2025 European tour dates
Jun 14: Oslo Tjuvholmen Arena, Norway
Jun 17: Stuttgart Schleyerhalle, Germany
Jun 18: Hessentag Festival, Frankfurt, Germany
Jun 21: Clisson Hellfest, France
Jun 25: Viveiro Resurrection Fest, Spain
Jun 27: Lisbon Evil Live Fest, Portugal
Jun 29: Barcelona Rock Fest, Spain
Jul 01: Ferrara Summer Festival, Italy
Jul 03: Zurich Hallenstadion, Switzerland
Jul 05: Hannover Niedersachsenstadion, Germany (supporting Scorpions)
Jul 07: Lodz Atlas Arena, Poland
Jul 10: Rattvik Dalhalla, Sweden
Jul 13: Munich Olympiahalle, Germany
Jul 15: Carcassonne Festival De Carcassone, France
Jul 17: Sion Sous Les Etoiles, Switzerland
Jul 19: Luxembourg Rockhal, Luxembourg
Jul 20: Oberhausen Rudolf-Weber-Arena, Germany
Jul 23: Scarborough Open Air Theatre, UK
Jul 25: London O2 Arena, UK
