Judas Priest will be welcomed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on November 5, and two of the band’s surviving former members — guitarist Ken “KK” Downing and drummer Les Binks — will be inducted alongside most of the group’s current lineup and late drummer Dave Holland.
While Downing has been at odds with his former bandmates since leaving Judas Priest in 2011, frontman Rob Halford confirms both KK and Binks will perform at the Rock Hall ceremony.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Halford tells ABC Audio about having Downing and Binks playing with the band. “And that was never a real issue. We felt that this is what the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame represents in terms of showing the talent, showing these are the guys that are receiving this accolade and there they are playing, you know.”
Halford also shares some details about the band’s performance, noting with a chuckle, “We’ve got, like, 8 minutes and 32-and-a-half seconds … Everything’s on the clock, which is the way it is in these kinds of events. So, we’re gonna try and cram as much as we can in that space.”
He adds, “And we got a few other things that we’re gonna do, which we won’t let out until the actual night, because that’s part of the magic of Priest. We’ve always got a little something up the metal Houdini sleeve.”
Judas Priest will be inducted into the Rock Hall in conjunction with receiving the Musical Excellence Award. The ceremony will take place at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater, and the event will air on HBO at a later date.
Meanwhile, Priest launched the fall 2023 U.S. leg of its 50 Heavy Metal Years tour last week. Check out all the upcoming dates at JudasPriest.com.
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