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Judas Priest: Satanic Panic, Censorship, Heavy Metal Suicide, and Defenders of the Faith · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. This is a story about death,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: about suicide, censorship, idolatry, in the ruination of souls. It's
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: a story about Satan and Saint Michael, about leather studs
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and cloved hoofs, and about heavy metal, specifically about heavy
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: metal icons. Judas Priest, a band who made great music.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Unlike that music. I played a few at the top
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: of the show that wasn't great music. That was a
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: preset loop from my melotron called Dead Eyed and muscle
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Bound MK.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Two.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I played you that loop because the rights to say
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: You Say Me by Lionel Richie. And why would I
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: play you that specific slice of it? Ain't easy like
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Sunday Morning Cheese anymore? Could I afford it? Because that
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: was the number one song in America on December twenty third,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, and that was the day the two
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: young metal heads put a shotgun to their heads and
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: threatened not only their own existence but the future existence
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  Speaker 1: of heavy metal. On this episode, suicide censorship, Satanic Panic,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Saint Michael, and the defenders of the faith. Judas priest,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgraceland. The young rocker
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: didn't know it yet, but he was a metalhead. It
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: was nineteen sixty nine and that term wouldn't come about
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: for another decade or so. But here in this Birmingham,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: England church, he felt the heaviness. It tangled with a
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: very real sense of beauty, and that beauty was working
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: hard for itself, like a rare sunny day in the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: dreary Midlands where he grew up, the light in the dark,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: hope and gloom, and inside that contrast there was irony.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: After all, this was a funeral. How could a funeral
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: be beautiful, especially a funeral for a kid? He didn't know.
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  Speaker 1: It just was the saints above, their images cut and
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  Speaker 1: kilmed into the stained glass windows, stared down at him.
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  Speaker 1: The young metal head knew that the intended effect was warmth,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: but right now, in his dirty denim with his long hair,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: all he felt was judgment. Sitting among the square, working
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: class members of this community, he tried to remember the
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: ten commandments. Thou shalt not kill. That was one of them,
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  Speaker 1: he was certain, but which one? And was there a
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: commandment that forbade one from killing oneself? The van rattled violently.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: This machine wasn't built for speed, not this amount of
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: speed anyway, and his driver wasn't built for this world,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: or so the kid thought. But that was okay, because
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: this world was about to end. That was a week
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: ago over in Hampstead Hill. The kid couldn't take it.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: He drove his van as fast as he could into
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  Speaker 1: a telephone kiosk on purpose. No amount of light was
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: going to over come as darkness, and there was no
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: more hope, only gloom. Evil a triumphed over good, despair
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  Speaker 1: and certitude over faith. And now, at just eighteen years
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: of age, young John Perry was dead, and so were
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the prospects of Birmingham's most promising young band of rockers,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Judas Priest. It was a damn shame, thought the young
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: metal Head would suicide kill Judas Priest, dead hanging from
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: a tree in the field of blood like Judas Iscariot.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Or would Judas Priest resurrect itself like Lazarus, or better yet,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: like the man himself, the first rock star, Jesus Christ
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Resurrection inspired. Maybe the young metal Head would replace John
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Perry on guitar and judas priest. Should they continue? Thoughts
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: of resurrection continued and bled out from the organist stabs
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: at the Mighty Pipe organ soundtrack of Ambition and Grief,
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  Speaker 1: and the organist rolled his head atop his slight shoulder
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  Speaker 1: frame as he played. He looked up in a trance,
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  Speaker 1: up at the icons and stained glass and the Saints
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  Speaker 1: and disciples staring down at the mourners. Jesus's disciples, the
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: world's first groupies. That was it. Thou shalt have no
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: other gods before me, That was the first commandment. No
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  Speaker 1: hero worship, no idols. It seems strange to the young
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  Speaker 1: metal head looking up at the Bible's heroes looking down
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  Speaker 1: at him. He supposed it was all easily explainable. The
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Saints and Disciples weren't being worshiped, But what about Saint Michael.
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  Speaker 1: The congregation leaned into the petition as one.
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  Speaker 2: Saint Michael, the Archangel defend us at beur protection against
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  Speaker 2: the wickedness and snares of the devil, Nay, God reviewed him.
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  Speaker 2: We helply pray and do Thou, o, Prince of the
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  Speaker 2: Heavenly Hosts, by the power of God, cast into health,
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  Speaker 2: Satan and all the evil spirits who proud about the
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  Speaker 2: world seeking the ruin of souls.
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  Speaker 1: A man the ruin of souls? Now that was some
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  Speaker 1: heavy shit. Saint Michael wasn't being worshiped, he was being
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  Speaker 1: called upon to protect us. But what about the rock
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  Speaker 1: stars he and his friends worshiped and idolized? What about
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendrix and that young local guitar god in the making,
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  Speaker 1: Tony Iomi from Black Sabbath. Was he, this young metal
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  Speaker 1: head here, guilty of hero worship himself, of idolatry, of
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  Speaker 1: putting his gods before his God? Or was he just
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  Speaker 1: a disciple maybe someday an archangel himself, or a heavy
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  Speaker 1: metal saint KK Downey guitar player for Judas priest, sent
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  Speaker 1: to protect rockers everywhere from the wickedness of shitty pop music.
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  Speaker 1: Or was he just another evil spirit wandering through the
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: world for the ruin of souls? Leather Boys, Big Studs,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: sn M Giants, Beasts among weaker bands, Rob Halford Junius
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  Speaker 1: Priest singer papered the wall the coal hearn Arms Pub
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  Speaker 1: a good distance from its iconic jshape bar, and took
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: in the scene wild, gorgeous gay men everywhere, and all
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  Speaker 1: there for the same thing, liberation in whatever form they desired.
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  Speaker 1: Almost anything went within the walls of coal hearn arms.
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  Speaker 1: That is, of course, if they could keep the coppers out.
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  Speaker 1: Homosexuality was partially decriminalized in England in nineteen sixty seven,
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  Speaker 1: but that meant that it was still partially criminal in
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: the late seventies, So best keep your head on a
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: swivel for any rating bobbies looking to crack skulls. Violence,
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  Speaker 1: the threat of it, and the stories about it. The
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: thrill of it was always prevalent. The thrill was why
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  Speaker 1: rob was there. The men in leather, they were something
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  Speaker 1: to look at, or to look up at, rather the
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  Speaker 1: way they dressed head to toe in black leather and
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  Speaker 1: studs over their muscular physiques, all of their muscles alive
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: except their faces. Their faces expressed dead, calm like bedrock,
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  Speaker 1: but their eyes reflected fire in dominance. Then they moved
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  Speaker 1: through the club like big game, slow plodding and oblivious
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  Speaker 1: to the hunt. Disco Blared men made small talk about
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  Speaker 1: safe words and sex crimes, where the best amal night
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  Speaker 1: trade could be procured, News and mutilations out by the docks.
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  Speaker 1: Floor shows over in the States, New York City's Rough
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Trade was a different cut. Manhattan's Anvil Nightclub supposedly featured
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  Speaker 1: cris gooed fists, fucking the willing and able on all
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  Speaker 1: fours right there in public on Saturday nights, and the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Anvil it wasn't even a full time gay bar. Not
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: that New York City didn't have its problems, it did,
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  Speaker 1: But London was different. London was more conservative, and here
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  Speaker 1: in the Colhern Arms it was strictly leather. No policemen,
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  Speaker 1: no firemen, no construction workers, and no fucking Indians. It
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  Speaker 1: was all leather, just like where Rob Halford grew up
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five miles away in Walsall, home
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  Speaker 1: of a thriving leather manufacturing industry, a town where not
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: everyone was gay like Rob, but where most everyone wore leather,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: and now so too with the straight boys and Rob's
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: band Judas Priest nineteen eighty was on the horizon, and
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: so were Judas Priests heavy metal fortunes. They'd broken out
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  Speaker 1: of their hometown of Birmingham with their debut album rock
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  Speaker 1: a Rolla and then a string of solid seventies long players,
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  Speaker 1: but in order to truly break internationally in order to
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  Speaker 1: achieve heavy metal icon status like Black Sabbath, their Birmingham predecessors,
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  Speaker 1: who literally invented the genre of heavy metal from their
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  Speaker 1: shared hometown. In order to do that, Judas Priest needed
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  Speaker 1: something different, something beyond big riffs, defiant boogie and vengeful screams.
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  Speaker 1: They needed great music, yes, and their next album, British Steel,
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  Speaker 1: was indeed filled with great music, particularly the planned singles
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight. But if Judas
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  Speaker 1: Priest wanted to be iconic, they not only had a
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  Speaker 1: sound iconic, they needed to look iconic. KK Downeing, Priest
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  Speaker 1: guitar player, encouraged Rob Halferd to lean into not only
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  Speaker 1: his leather roots from back in Walsall, but his leather
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  Speaker 1: passionate the colhern arms as well and at all the
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  Speaker 1: other leather bars rob as a closet and gay man
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  Speaker 1: frequented while the band was on tour, and thus Judas
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  Speaker 1: Priests badass heavy metal image was born there. It was
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  Speaker 1: right there on the back of nineteen eighty's British Steel,
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  Speaker 1: Rob Halford decked out from head to toe and skin
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  Speaker 1: tight leather, straddling the microphone stand. KK Downing mid slash
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  Speaker 1: of his flying V guitar, with studded leather bands running
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  Speaker 1: up his forearms across the flesh of his exposed midriff.
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  Speaker 1: Glenn Tipton on his black strat, with his black leather
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  Speaker 1: jacket opened to reveal his chest. Bassist Ian Hill holding
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  Speaker 1: it down, clad fully in black like some hard as
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  Speaker 1: nail Saxon Warrior, propelled by Dave Holland leering over his
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  Speaker 1: black kit. The look was and still is iconic. It
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  Speaker 1: inspired a heavy metal uniform of sorts. Millions of metal heads,
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  Speaker 1: most of them hetero, a minority of them surely homophobic.
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  Speaker 1: From the day British Steel was released in April of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty were dressed in the same leather and studs.
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  Speaker 1: Rob Halford Nick from the gay leather bars that he
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  Speaker 1: hung out in once again. KK Downing was not oblivious
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  Speaker 1: to the irony, but he, like the rest of Judas Priest,
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  Speaker 1: who at the dawn of the new decade, were in
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the midst of unprecedented success, was oblivious to the release
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  Speaker 1: of a book from that same year, a book called
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Michelle Remembers, a book that detailed violence and wandering evil
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  Speaker 1: spirits in a way that no leather bar could ever
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  Speaker 1: portend a book that would create in the United States
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  Speaker 1: and Canada a Satanic panic, one that would ensnare judas priest,
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  Speaker 1: just like the devil himself in the Ruin of not one,
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  Speaker 1: but two teenage souls. Satan wants you, and he's coming
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  Speaker 1: for you in a million different ways. Sometimes he's successful.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes Saint Michael in his celestial choir fight him off
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  Speaker 1: and drown him out. Michelle remembers a book published in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty written by psychiatrist Larry Paster and his patient,
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  Speaker 1: Michelle Smith, would have the world believe that Satan was
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  Speaker 1: coming for their children at their daycare centers. The book
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  Speaker 1: detailed Michelle's story as recounted to Pasitor through what was
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: called recovered memory therapy, a practice that has been since
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: denounced by the psychiatric community. Regardless, Michelle detailed her Satanic
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  Speaker 1: possession from the age of five, when her parents handed
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  Speaker 1: her over to a Satanic cult or her daycare center
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  Speaker 1: in Saskatchewan, a Canadian province, mutilations, ritual murders, the killing
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  Speaker 1: and torture of little children, babies. Even it led to
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  Speaker 1: a case known as the Martinsville Nightmare, in which Michelle's
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  Speaker 1: daycare center was investigated for satanic ritual abuse. Ultimately, nine
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  Speaker 1: people from that daycare center faced charges, despite there being
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: no real evidence of any wrongdoing. Two women spent years
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  Speaker 1: in prison before being exonerated. Several men, under pressure pleaded
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  Speaker 1: guilty to lesser charges, and decades later, the prosecutions were
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  Speaker 1: condemned as a miscarriage of justice and the convictions were overturned,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: but of course the damage was by then long since done.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: The lack of evidence that led to these convictions didn't
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: stop law enforcement in Canada and in the United States
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: due to the popularity of the Martinsville Nightmare case and
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: of the book Michelle remembers from it, instituting mandatory training
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  Speaker 1: sessions for their officers on how to identify the signs
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  Speaker 1: of satanic ritual abuse. Throughout North American suburbia, cops, teachers,
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  Speaker 1: and others and positions of authority were all keyed up
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  Speaker 1: on satanic panic and on high alert, searching for signs
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  Speaker 1: of devil worship among their children and those influencing their kids.
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  Speaker 1: And according to the norms in charge, there was plenty
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  Speaker 1: to look for. Horned hands, goat headed figures, occult symbols,
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  Speaker 1: ritualistic ephemera, candles, bondage, leather. It sounded like the cover
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: of an early eighties heavy metal album. Judas Priests didn't
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  Speaker 1: go in for the whole horned hands, goat head bit,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: but that didn't mean others like Venom didn't. As far
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: as other occult symbolism. Both Figurati Van Literal ACDC released
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: an album that was entirely black, and they wrote it
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: up to charts partly on the back of a single
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: entitled Hell's Bells. This album, Back in Black, became the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: best selling record of all time, only to be supplanted
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: shortly thereafter by none other than Michael Jackson in his
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: album Thriller def Leopard. Another promising heavy metal band from Sheffield, England,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: a band that toured with Judas Priest in their early years,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: released a record in nineteen eighty three called Pyromania. The
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: cover of that record a building in the crosshairs, its
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: top floors engulfed in a hellish inferno, And of course
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: there was Judas Priest from British Steel in nineteen eighty onward,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: the band's image leaned even more fully into the leather
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and studs walk into any metal heads Bedroom in the
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: early nineteen eighties, and he or she was likely to
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: have ACDC, Deaf Leopard and Judas Priest albums lying around.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: But bands like ACDC and Deaf Leopards sold massively, Judas
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Priest did not. Their record sold well, but as far
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: as popularity goes, compared to the Young Brothers and the
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Boys from Sheffield, Priest was second tier at the record
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: store checkout line. Their excellent album Defenders of the Faith,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: only sold eight hundred thousand copies upon release. But none
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  Speaker 1: of this means Priest weren't rock stars. They absolutely were,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: and at this particular moment in nineteen eighty five, while
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: in the Bahamas, posted up at a resort bar on
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: break from recording their follow up to Defenders of the Faith,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: the band was surrounded by groupies and not only were
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: they signing autographs and signing the breasts of their autograph seekers,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: they were also signing the babies of one of the
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: women who sought their autographs, literally signing the heads of
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: twin newborns. But such hero worship was quickly brought to
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: an end by the news on the television screen up
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: above the bar, there was Tipper Gore the wife of
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Democratic Senator Al Gore from Tennessee, and the head of
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: a new organization called the PMRC, short for the Parents
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Music Resource Center, an organization whose mission was to increase
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: quote parental control over children's access to music deemed to
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: have violent, drug related, or sexual themes unquote. The question was, though,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: who decides which content is harmful and which isn't. Essentially,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the PMRC was a censorship organization created by a board
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: housewife from Tennessee. Joseph Cors, the owner of Coors Beers,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: and Mike Love, the singer from The Beach Boys, helped
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  Speaker 1: fund the PMRC, But before Tipper Gore felt her calling
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to found such an organization, she was sitting in rush
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: hour traffic in Washington, d C. With her eleven year
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: old daughter, Carrie. Carrie wanted to listen to the new
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: cassette Tipper had bought for Purple Rain by Prince and
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the Revolution. The slinky sexy beat kicked the song in,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: and Tipper nodded her head behind the wheel, no doubt
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: out of time. Her daughter seated next to her, grooved innocently.
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  Speaker 1: The first verse started, and Prince sang I knew a
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: girl named Nikki. I guess he could say she was
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: a sex feed. Wait a minute, what what did he
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: just say? Before the senator's wife could register what was happening,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Prince hit the second line of the first verse. I
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: met her in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: What the hell was happening? Tipper slammed the stopajack button
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: on the car stereo. She then pulled over to examine
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the cassette art and find the lyrics to make sure
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: she wasn't hearing things. But she was out of luck.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: The lyrics weren't printed on the Purple Rain album, and
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Tipper Gore would have to do her research at a
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: later date, without her daughter by her side, perhaps with
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the good Senator al behind closed doors. This was the
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: backdrop to the testimony Tipper Gore was now delivering in
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: front of the US Senate on live television, per and
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: her colleague's words being broadcast out across the bar about
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: some of that Bahamian bar's clientele at the moment, the
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: members of Jewish priest Susan Baker, Tipper Gore's co founder
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: at the PMRC, and the wife of then Treasury Secretary
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: James Baker presented briefing materials to the senators that fingered
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Judas Priest as part of the problem, particularly as it
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: pertained to the issue of sado masochism and the occults
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: in the genre of heavy metal. It seemed that the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: PMRC had quickly expanded their self assigned mandate from warnings
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: about violence, drugs and sets to include the occult as
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: well as the influence of the devil in popular music.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: I have no way of proving it, but I would
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: bet a healthy amount of cash that Susan Baker and
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Tipper Gore have been part of some DC wives book
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: club that recommended the book. Michelle remembers at one point
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: before the formation the PMRC regarding the occult i e. Satanism.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Other metal bands in addition to Judas Priest, Wasp and
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Venom to name two, were listed as part of the
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: pmr c's Notorious Filthy fifteen, a list of fifteen songs
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: by artists from all genres that the PMRC found to
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: be egregiously objectionable. The artists, the songs, and the objectionable
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: lyrical content went as follows. Number one Prince Darling, Nicky,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Sex and Masturbation. Number two on the list, Sheena Easton
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Sugar Walls. Lyrical content that they found offensive was sex,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Judas Priest coming into number three, Eat Me Alive, suppose
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the defensive lyrical content sex and violence number four, Vanity
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: strap On, Robbie Baby, sex number five, Motley Crue Bastard,
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  Speaker 1: violence and language number six, ACDC, let Me put my
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Love into You sex number seven, Twisted Sister, We're not
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: gonna take it. Violence number eight, Madonna, Dress You Up.
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  Speaker 1: Sex number nine, wasp animal parentheses, fuck like a Beast
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: sex language, violence number ten, def Leopard high and dry parentheses,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Saturday Night drug and alcohol use number eleven, Merciful Fate
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: into the Coven. The lyrics supposedly repped the occult number twelve,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Black Sabbath Trashed, drug and alcohol use number thirteen, Mary Jane,
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  Speaker 1: Girls in My House Sex fourteen, Venom possessed the occult
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: number fifteen Cindi Lauper, she Bop sex and masturbation. Now.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: The lyrics to Judas Priests Eat Me Alive are kind
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: of aim if I'm being honest, They sort of read
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: like a sophomore stab at Prince's sexuality. The lyrics are comical.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: They go bound to deliver as you give and I
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: collect squealing in passion as the rod of Steel injects. Okay, dude,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: try saying that to your wife after date night this
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: weekend when you're hoping to get laid, and see how
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: far you get. I'm not gay, but I would bet
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: the dudes don't find this hot in any real way either,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: even the leather Boys. I'm sure they have their own
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: version of over the top, but I'm betting it's less
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: silly than the rot of Steel in jects. To his credit,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Rob Halford likened the songs ridiculously over sexualized lyrics to
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: spinal Tap. He said that the song was tongue in
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: cheek about a consensual, over the top sexual fantasy. My
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: point in all of this, I guess, is that I
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: find the inclusion of eat Me Alive, along with a
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: couple others on this list of Philthy fifteen, positively laughable.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Including such a cartoonish come on on the list speaks
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: directly to the fundamental unseriousness of Tipper Gore in her
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: organization and the senators who took her seriously. For that matter,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: at the hearing, Senator Paula Hawkins a Republican from Florida
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: cited Judas Priest by name no doubt, looking for whatever
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: free press and covered to TV time she could gin
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: up and the Senator describe Judas Priest as quote representative
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: of the most extreme examples of violent and sexual content
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: and rock. With this hearing, the PMRC was trying to
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: get the record industry to agree to a content warning system,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: a label on albums with lyrics these suburban moms deemed
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: sexually explicit, violent, drug related, or otherwise offensive. A couple
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: other things came out of this hearing. One the Great
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Frank Zappa, testified against the PMRC and pretty much torched them.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: The PMRC proposal is an ill conceived piece of nonsense
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the civil liberties of people who are not children, and
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: promises to keep the courts busy for years. He said.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: The PMRC was eager to have John Denver testify that he,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: being the wholesome, bespectacled singer songwriter that he was, would
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: side with them, but that ploy backfired. Denver testified that
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: censorship was a slippery slope, recalling how his own innocuous
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: song Rocky Mountain High had once been falsely accused of
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: promoting drug use. However, despite such testimony, the RAA, that's
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: the Recording Industry Association of America, was in fact moved
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: to include a warning sticker on records deemed to contain
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: explicit content, the now infamous black and white Parental Advisory label.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: In an exchange with Republican Senator Slade Gordon from Washington,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Frank Zappo was asked about the supposed existence of subliminal
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: messages on albums, secret messages planted there by musicians to
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: inspire children to turn to the devil. Zaba replied correctly
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: that no one empirical evidence existed to prove subliminal messaging
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: existed on rock or heavy metal or any other records.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Back in the Bahamas KK downing of Judas Priests leaned
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: back on his beachside barstool and considered what had just
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: transpired on CNN concerning his band. It was all rubbish.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: The PMRC and the senators who were buying into their bullshit,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: and the record industry that was caving to their arbitrary
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: censorship demands were painting him in. His bandmates and his
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: friends and fellow musicians, as evildoers, as degenerates, prowling about
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: for the ruin of souls. KK Downing wasn't in league
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: with Satan. Neither were any of the other groups mentioned
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: at that hearing, and that includes Venom, despite their song
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: entitled in League with Satan. KK Downing was in this
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: business to sell records, to be a heavy metal icon,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: like Tony Iomi before him and Jimmy Hendricks before him,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: and despite whatever so called negative press this hearing would
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: lay at the feet of Judas Priest. KK was smart
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: enough to know that warning labels on records would only
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: mean more record sales. He smiled and sipped his cocktail.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Thousands of miles away. In a working class bedroom in Sparks, Nevada,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: two metal heads eighteen year old Raymond Bellknapp and twenty
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: year old James Vance, lay back on the shag rug
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: stoned out of their minds and took in the sounds
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: of Judas Priest stained class while the devil readied himself,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this. We're, we're, we're. It
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: was the unforgivable sin despair. Judas Priest didn't say that
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the whiskey Priest said that the main character from Graham
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Green's excellent nineteen forty novel The Power and the Glory.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Raymond Belna and James Vance, forty five years later, had
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: no doubt never heard that literary quote, but they had
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: heard Judas Priest and right now. On December twenty third,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, they were loaded up on weed and
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: cans of cheap domestic beer, endlessly spinning Judas Priest nineteen
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: seventy eight albums Stained Class. Specifically, they were spinning Priest
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: cover of Spooky Tooths better by You, Better than Me,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: the third song on side one. Life sucked for Raymond
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: and James, and the Judas Priest records seemed to confirm
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: that fact, or at least it soundtracked the confirmation they
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: received from the drugs and the alcohol. Raymond had been
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: telling anyone who'd listened about the despair. He'd come to
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: accept this his lot, no job, no girl. So for
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: young Raymond here that meant no nothing. James was in
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the same boat, but James, being the older of the two,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: was the idea man. He had a solution. They killed themselves.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Fuck this, fuck life, fuck worrying about the future, fuck
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: never getting laid. James was serious. He'd do it if
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Raymond would. Who was Raymond to argue? James always knew
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: what was best. It was James who turned Raymond onto
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: judus priest. Raymond wanted to know when fucking now, dick
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: wad oh okay. Raymond was surprised, but he was still
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: in James grabbed his stepdad's sawed off twelve gage. Out
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: back there was an old Pentecostal church, and Raymond pulled
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: some beers from the fridge and they both stumbled outdoors
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: toward the church's playground. It was the right thing to do,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: James explained. There was no fucking cavalry coming for them,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: no guardian angels, no celestial choir, no intercession from Saint Michael,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: just gloom. Who was Raymond to argue? They sat on
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: the church playgrounds. Rickety Merry go round. Raymond had to
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: go first, James explained. Raymond took James's word as gospel.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: He grabbed the twelve gage, crushed what was left of
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: his beer, pointed the shotgun to his throat, and James
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: looked on, half in shock, half with morbid curiosity. Raymond's
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: eyes tightened into a focus James hadn't seen in weeks,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: and James nodded, as if to vouchsafe the pact. Then
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Raymond pulled the trigger. The top of his head blasted
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: up above the Merry Go Round and rained down quickly
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: on the scrubby, hallowed ground. Fear fired its way up
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: into James's chest, speeding his heart to a raid. He'd
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: never felt. Panic momentarily overtook despair. Flight had vanquished whatever
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: fight James had in reserve. He knew he'd be blamed
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: for this. He couldn't accept that he'd grabbed the shotgun
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: from his friend's death clutch, pointed the gun under his
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: own chin, and he looked around the churchyard. He looked
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: beyond to his stepfather's house, and beyond that to Sparks, Nevada,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: and all he saw was despair. And that's when James
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: pulled the trigger. All right, discuys w We're about eighty
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: percent through this Judas Priest story, and we haven't touched
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: on one of the darkest chapters yet, the shocking arrest
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: of Judas Priest drummer Dave Holland on charges of indecent
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: assault and attempted rape. Details and the outcome. They don't
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: quite fit into this story we're telling here in this
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: main episode, but they're too important and too disturbing to ignore.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: That's why today's exclusive mini episode is all about that
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Dave Holland's story and what really happened and how it
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: shook Judas Priest fans to their core. To hear it,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: you've got to be a Disgraceland All Access member. It's
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: five ninety nine at disgrace landpod dot com and it
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: unlocks ad free episodes plus more exclusives just like this one.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: All right, Back to our story, Famed record producer Eddie Kramer,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: about as expert a witness as one could get on
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: the art and the science of recording technology, sat in
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: his studio with the members of Judas Priest. They were
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: painstakingly analyzing the sound of their version of Spooky Tooths
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Better by You Better than Me being played backward. Eddie
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Kramer and the band were engaged in this ridiculous section
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: because Judas Priest and their record label CBS were being
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: sued in civil court by the families of James Vance
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: and Raymond Bellknapp. Raymond bell Knapp died but James Vance survived.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: Albeit horribly disfigured, and he claimed that Judas Priest's lyrics
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: gave him the idea for the suicide Pact. The suit
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: claimed that the band had purposefully included the phrase do
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: it in its recording of better by You, Better than Me.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Making the allegation more absurd was the fact that prosecutors
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: were claiming Judas Priest did this in a way that
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: allowed for the phrase to be heard only if their
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: record standed class was played backward, and that furthermore, the
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: band rob Halford, KK Downing and the rest of them
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: did this to incite children to kill themselves. As insane
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: as this sounds at the time, in nineteen eighty, this
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: was quite serious business. The satanic panic that had taken
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: root a decade earlier was still very much part of
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: the public consciousness. Ozzy Osbourne had gone through his own
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: trial four years earlier over his song Suicide Solution. Thankfully,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: the judge dismissed the case, citing Ozzie's protection under the
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Constitution's First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech. Still, that decision
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: meant nothing as far as Judas Priest was concerned. This
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: was an entirely different matter. Records everywhere were still being
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: affixed with the PMRC's toothless parental guidance sticker. While America
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: was in the midst of a nasty culture war between
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: religious conservatives and liberal baby boomers grabbing institutional power and
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: ways and numbers they'd never had before. The stakes were
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: very real. If the prosecution was successful in proving the
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Judas Priest was guilty responsible for the deaths of two
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: young metal heads and on the hook for the six
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: point two million the dead kid's parents were seeking, then
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the fate of heavy metal was very much up in
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: the air. Its doubt that in this environment, with this
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: type of financial risk, that record labels would continue to
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: back heavy metal bands, and this would then spell death
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: for the genre as a viable commercial form of music.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: In other words, Priest, def Leppard, even Ozzie and all
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: the rest would all be fucked. Talk about despair. The
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: band members and Judas Priest were a mess. For one thing,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: two of their fans were dead and the idea that
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: they wanted their fans dead was patently absurd. And if
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: the band was defeated in the civil court case, they
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: would be the ones responsible for killing the careers of
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: countless heavy metal musicians, including their own. Such an outcome
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: would ensure that Judas Priest would land far short of
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: icon status. Hell in this scenario did not even be
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: martyrs if proven guilty. They feared that in the eyes
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: of the heavy metal community, they'd be something more akin
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: to their namesake, the Ultimate Betrayer, and so it was
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Preest guitarist Glenn Tipton's idea to go into the studio
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: with Eddie Kramer. He later said of his thinking at
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the time, it's a fact that if you play speech backwards,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: some of it will seem to make sense. So I
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: asked permission to go into a studio and find some
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: perfectly innocent phonetic flukes. The lawyers didn't want to do it,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: but I insisted. We bought a copy of the Stained
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: Class album in a local record shop, went into the studio,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: recorded it to Tate, turned it over and played it backwards.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Right away we found, Hey, ma, my chair is broken,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: and give me a peppermint and help me keep a job.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: These findings were an extension of Frank Zappa's argument against
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: the PMRC's absurd claim that musicians were including harmful subliminal
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: messages on their albums. The whole issue of hidden messages,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Frank said, backward masking and all that if you play
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: any record backwards long enough, you'll eventually hear what you
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: want to hear. It's the same as looking at clouds.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: People see what they want. It's not scientific and it's
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: not serious. The judge in the case against Judas Priest
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: apparently agreed with Frank Zappa and was Glenn Tipton, in
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: the defense, ruling that subliminal messages, if they exist, are
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: not protected speech under the First Amendment, but in this case,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: no evidence was presented that Judas Priest placed subliminal messages
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: intentionally or subliminally to cause this tragic event. In the end,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: the case was dismissed and Judas Priest and heavy metal prevailed.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: The band's next album, Painkiller, their first with new drummer
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Scott Travis, was released in nineteen ninety but despite it
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: being an incredible achievement of heavy metal awesomeness, Rob Halford
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: departed the band a few years afterward. He was replaced
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: by Tim the Ripper Owens, while Rob pursued career making
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: heavy music with other musicians. In nineteen ninety eight, unprompted.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: In a television interview with MTV's Kurt Loder, Rob Halford
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: apropos of nothing blurted. A lot of homophobia still exists
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: in the music world, in all kinds of music. I
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: think it's time to break down that barrier. I'm gay.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Most of us in the heavy metal community at the
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: time shrugged and said, yeah, no shit. The leather and
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: studs kind of gave it away nearly two decades ago, dude, Regardless,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Back in nineteen ninety eight, coming out was an act
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: of courage from Rob Halford when much of America still
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: held on to its backward ideas about homosexuality. Who knows
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: what Tipper Gore thought, but the metal community continued to
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: embrace Rob Halford just as it always had, doubly so
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: when he rejoined Judas Priest in the early two thousands,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: and now when this not so young anymore. Metal Head
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: sits in his pew on Sundays and looks up at
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: the stained glass saints staring down at him. He sees
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: the church's defender, Saint Michael, and is reminded of one
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: of his favorite live metal albums, and he wonders which
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: metal bands deserve the vaunted status of heavy metal icon.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: His mind goes to Black Sabbath, the founders, but then
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: also very quickly to Judas Priest, like Saint Michael, the
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: Defenders of the Face A band, the Tipper Gore, and
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: other evildoers prowling about for the ruin of souls once
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: labeled a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Okay,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: thanks for hanging with me and Judas Priest and Saint Micha.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: If you want more of this story, if you want
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: to know what the hell happened with the bands drummer
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Dave Holland and the sexual assaul case is sent into prison,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: you can have that story in the Disgrace Lam mini
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: episode coming up next to your feeds. But you need
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: to be an all access member, and if you ain't,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: it's easy to sign up. Just go to disgrace lampod
• 40:15
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• 40:18
  Speaker 1: and unlock this and more exclusive content, along with ad
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: free listening and access to connect with the disco community
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: of music obsessives in the Disgraceland chat. Your support is
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: very much appreciated. Okay. Question of the week, duh greatest
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: metal band of all time? Who is it? And why?
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Priest fans? I want to hear from you? Sabbath? Which Sabbath?
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Ozzy Dio? What are we talking here? Metallica Slayer? Who
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: who is it?
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Let me know?
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Get at me, let's duke get out in the after
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: party six one seven nine oh six six sixty three eight.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Leave me a voicemail or send me a text with
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: your answers and you might hear yourself in our bonus
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: episode coming up right after this at disgracelampod on the
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: socials disgrace lampod at gmail dot com, electronic mail. All right,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: here comes some credits. Disgracelaand was created by Yours Truly
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: in a produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: at disgracelampod dot com. Rate and review the show and
• 41:08
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• 41:12
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• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Rock a Roller, Hey the beddan Man