Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford discusses the inspiration behind the band's timeless anthem Breaking The Law in a new teaser for the forthcoming documentary The Ballad of Judas Priest.
The clip features documentary footage of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher discussing violent clashes between striking British miners and police officers, during the 1984-'85 Miners' Strike, during which more than 11,000 arrests were made.
"What we have got is an attempt to substitute the rule of the mob for the rule of the law," Thatcher is shown saying. "And it must not succeed."
Although this footage was filmed four years after the release of Judas Priest's British Steel album, which featured Breaking The Law, it serves to illustrate the division in Britain during Thatcher's time in government, when the Conservative Party leader was despised by trade unionists, miners, dockers, nurses, and nationalists in the North of Ireland, among others.
"Breaking the Law is a revolution song," Halford states in the clip. "You'd watch the news every night and you see all this conflict going on, with the pain and the suffering of so many British working class people. Rioting and striking because of their rage.”
Referencing the song's iconic video, in which the band members stage a bank robbery in order to liberate a gold presentation disc for British Steel, Halford says, "Maybe it was just a metaphor of you cannot cage this music, you cannot put this music behind bars."
The Ballad of Judas Priest, which is co-directed by Sam Dunn (Metal Evolution, Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage, Iron Maiden: Flight 666) and Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, features interviews with Dave Grohl, the late Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica's Kirk Hammett, Smashing Pumpkins bandleader Billy Corgan, Lzzy Hale, Jack Black, Scott Ian, Run DMC's Daryl McDaniels and more, plus the members of Judas Priest.
The documentary received its world premiere last night, February 15, at the 76th Berlin Film Festival.
Rob Halford spoke about the political nature of some of Judas Priest's lyrics in a press conference ahead of the premiere, revealing that he sees "things in the world that affect me, that get me pissed off" and thinks, "Is there a way that I can put this in a song?"
Quoted in Variety, Halford added, "I really have to temper myself, because as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten angrier with the world. I’ve gotten angrier with the injustice, particularly for my own people [the LGBTQ+ community], who are still suffering and not given the human rights that they absolutely deserve."
At the same press conference, Tom Morello hailed the band as a model for "how we all can do better."
"What a time to be alive," he said, "where you can both make a documentary about one of your favourite bands and fight fascism at the same time."
