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Judas Priest were honored with the Musical Excellence Award at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony on Saturday night (November 5), and as promised, the heavy metal legends reunited with ex-members guitarist K.K. Downing and drummer Les Binks. Current guitarist Glenn Tipton also joined the band for a one-off performance after retiring from the road following a Parkinson's Disease diagnosis in 2018. The lineup was rounded out by active members singer Rob Halford, bassist Ian Hill, drummer Scott Travis and guitarist Richie Faulkner.
Together, they played a three-song medley of their hits “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’,” “Breaking the Law,” and “Living After Midnight.”
As Rolling Stone reports, during their induction speech, Downing remembered late drummer Dave Holland, who passed away in 2018, and an emotional Tipton thanked Judas Priest's devoted fans.
“I’m the gay guy in the band,” Halford said when it was his turn at the mic. “We call ourselves the heavy metal community which is all-inclusive, no matter what your sexual identity is, what you look like, or what you believe in or don’t believe in. Everybody’s welcome.”
“We should get out another 50 years, but the joy about music is that it lives forever,” he continued. “And that’s the reason why we’re here. We live for heavy metal. We live for music. And we’re living for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”
The band joined Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Carly Simon, Eurythmics, Eminem, Dolly Parton and Lionel Richie in the Rock Hall's 2022 class. Songwriting and production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were also honored with the Musical Excellence Award.
Judas Priest are only the third metal act to be inducted into the Hall, following Black Sabbath in 2006 and Metallica in 2009.