Rob Halford of Judas Priest says ‘Simpsons’ Appearance Was “Biggest Thrill” of His Life

When it comes to being an international rock superstar, selling tens of millions of records is probably a pretty big thrill, however, for Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, this distinction actually belongs to his appearance on The Simpsons.

The season 25 show “Steal This Episode” dealt with online music piracy, with Homer getting caught in the middle of an FBI investigation and fleeing to Sweden. Toward the episode’s end, Halford performed a parody of the band’s hit “Breaking The Law” in an attempt to catch the Simpson Family patriarch.

However, the episode wasn’t without a bit of controversy. “There’s only one surefire way to get fugitives out of a foreign building,” an FBI agent said, “Blasting death metal.” One of the members of the crowd also chimed in with: “Swedes love death metal. It reminds us of death!”

Metal fans were quick to point out that Priest is not, in fact, death metal at all. Halford addressed this, as well as the Simpsons creative apology, in his interview with KISW radio in Seattle.

“They invited me to a read-through, so I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll come and hang out.’ So we’re in a room, and they invite a lot of guests, and the writers are down at the other end with their notepads and watching everybody that’s looking at the table,” Halford described. “And then the producer goes, ‘Welcome, everybody, to the read-through. Blah blah blah blah blah. The Simpsons is the longest-running, most successful animated TV series ever.’ He sets up the storyline, and he said, ‘We open up with Homer talking about so-and-so.’ And then Homer starts speaking, and Homer is about two feet to my left. And then Marge starts speaking, and then Bart starts speaking. It was, like, the most surreal thing ever, but the biggest thrill of my life, because I’ve been a Simpsons fan since that show first kicked off.”

“It was very, very sweet,” he added. “Some of the actors knew Priest and we shook hands and we took some pictures and so forth.”

As for the death metal hullabaloo, The Simpsons quickly stepped up to address their mistake, having the next week’s chalkboard intro gag read: “Judas Priest is not ‘death metal.'”

Halford was very appreciative of the gesture. “What was really cool about that was that we didn’t even think about the script side of the show,” he said. “And then, of course, when it was released, instantly, all of the fans were going on the Priest Facebook, [asking], ‘What are they saying? Priest aren’t a death metal band. What are they talking about?’ And then, like two episodes later, we see Bart making up and kind of doing that thing at the blackboard. They didn’t need to do that. But that’s what I love about The Simpsons people. They’re so protective of their brand and everything that’s associated with it that that was a really, really beautiful gesture on their part to throw that back at Priest. Because we treasure everything about Priest… so they needn’t have done that, but they did, and I though that was a really, really cool thing.”

[via Blabbermouth]