At last – Judas Priest will finally make it into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

Judas Priest will finally be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, 23 years after they first became eligible. 

The metal icons will receive the Musical Excellence Award at this year’s event, held on Nov 5, 2022 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

According to the official Hall Of Fame website, the award is given to “artists, musicians, songwriters and producers whose originality and influence creating music have had a dramatic impact on music.”

"Judas priest are thrilled and honoured to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2022," say the band in a statement. "This is also a great moment for British heavy metal, metal worldwide and our amazing fans who support us and keep flying the flag for metal and Judas Priest!" 

Priest join Dolly Parton, Eminem, Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Carly Simon and Lionel Richie as this year’s inductees. Producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis will also receive the Musical Excellence Awards.

Exactly which of Priest’s many members will attend the ceremony remains to be seen. Former guitarist K.K. Downing and drummers Les Blinks and Dave Holland are eligible for induction, and while Holland died in 2018, Binks and Downing could join the current line-up in Los Angeles. 

Downing has long been engaged in a war of words with his former bandmates, repeatedly expressing his irritation at not being invited to re-join Priest after guitarist Glenn Tipton was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in early 2018.

More recently, current guitarist Richie Faulkner has urged the two parties to reconcile.

"It's been a bit of a shit show," Faulkner told Ryan Roxie on the Trenches Podcast. And I don't know why that is. To me, music aside, they should maybe pick up the phone and just talk to each other as buddies and go and have a beer and just be pals. You know, fuck music for a minute; let's just be pals. And then whatever happens, happens. They were pals for 40 years. They lived pretty much together for 40 years – four decades!"

Asked about the possibility of joining his former bandmates onstage at the ceremony, Downing told Eonmusic, "I thought about it briefly, when we were nominated, what would happen. But like I say, it's November and a lot of things can happen between now and then, especially with men of an age like us.

"But I think it’s just a question of seeing how everything lies when it comes to them, really, because a lot of things can happen between now and then; a lot of things could get better, but they could get worse, or stay the same, you never know, do you?"

The news means that Priest will become one of only a handful of  metal bands inducted in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, alongside Metallica and Black Sabbath. Fans have long called for Iron Maiden to be inducted – the British band have been eligible since 2005.