Judas Priest are due to get their own documentary film soon, and it’s being co-directed by Rage Against The Machine‘s Tom Morello – find out more below.
Sony Music Vision has announced the upcoming documentary film, The Ballad Of Judas Priest, in an exclusive to Variety. The documentary has yet to receive a release date, but will be co-directed by Morello and established metal filmmaker Sam Dunn (Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey).
The Ballad Of Judas Priest will seemingly chronicle the band’s legendary 50-year career, including their impact on heavy metal as pioneers of the genre. While concrete details remain scarce at the time of writing, the documentary will tell their story in “a never-before-seen way” with “intimate, unfiltered access to their lives”.
The band said in a statement, per Variety: “We have lived and breathed metal for over five decades, and finally in this documentary we are summoning our congregation to officially witness our lives uncensored, in a never-before-seen way…the cassock comes off, revealing Priest in all its metal glory!”
Co-directors Morello and Dunn added in a joint statement: “Tracing their incredible 50-year journey, this film will capture how Judas Priest both defined the sound and look of metal, but also made it a more inclusive place along the way. We are grateful to the band for allowing us such intimate, unfiltered access to their lives and look forward to bringing this film to the metal masses around the world.”
One topic fans hope the documentary will touch on is frontman Rob Halford‘s sexuality –the iconic metal singer caught up with NME as part of the In Conversation series last year, and opened up about what it was like to come out as gay in 1998 – something he described as “the greatest thing I could have done for myself”.
“If I reflect on it, it happened in the right way because it wasn’t premeditated… Everybody in the band knew I was gay, everybody at the label knew I was gay and management knew I was gay. And wouldn’t you believe it? All the fans were like, ‘Well, we always thought you were gay anyway.’ And there was me thinking I’m the only gay in the village! But the goodness that came out of that can’t be overstated,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tom Morello will serve as “musical director” for Black Sabbath’s final gig this July. He’s teased “huge superstars” as “surprises” for the show, which apart from featuring a performance from Black Sabbath, will include Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Lamb Of God, Tool, Mastodon, Alice In Chains, Guns N’ Roses, Halestorm, Gojira and more.
He also shared how his role in the concert came to be. “It came about [because] Ozzy and Sharon asked me to do — they surprised me one day and said, ‘There’s gonna be one more Black Sabbath show, all four original members, the last-ever Ozzy Osbourne show. We wanna have a big day of celebration and will you help curate it?’ And I was, like, ‘Well, that’s crazy. But yes, of course.’”
One name notably missing from the line-up is Judas Priest, who will be playing a gig with Scorpions in Hannover, celebrating the German hard rock bands’ 60th anniversary on that same night.
Halford recently spoke about being “gutted” that they can’t participate, saying they were unaware of the gig until it was too late. He then revealed that Sharon Osbourne offered to fly him to Birmingham and back on a private jet so he could make a guest appearance but turned down the offer because it felt like it could be “dangerous”.
While no current member of Judas Priest is scheduled for Sabbath’s final show, Halford did highlight how K.K. Downing – who was the guitarist for the band from their formation up until 2011 – is on the bill and will represent “the spirit of the band”.
After their show with Scorpions in July, Judas Priest will be hitting the road again in 2025 for a co-headline tour with Alice Cooper. It’ll feature gigs across North America, Europe and the UK, and includes a stop at The O2 in London on July 25. Visit here for UK tickets and here for North American and European tickets.