REFILE: 'Ballad of Judas Priest' documentary highly resonant today, says lead singer Rob Halford

Record ID: 2341661

  • Title: REFILE: 'Ballad of Judas Priest' documentary highly resonant today, says lead singer Rob Halford
  • Date: 17th February 2026
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 16, 2026) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) JUDAS PRIEST LEAD VOCALIST ROB HALFORD SAYING:  "That's what we do in metal. Metal has had to fight for its existence from day one, even even today. And I think that's what's so great about this movie that Tom some mentioned. This is if you don't know anything about Judas Priest, if you don't know anything
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: 76th Berlin Film Festival Berlinale Heavy Metal Judas Priest Rage Against the Machine Rob Halford Sam Dunn The Ballad of Judas Priest Tom Morello documentary music
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY / VARIOUS FILMING LOCATIONS
  • City: BERLIN, GERMANY / VARIOUS FILMING LOCATIONS
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
  • Reuters ID: LVA009604816022026RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: "The Ballad of Judas Priest", a new documentary about the heavy metal pioneers, arrives at a moment when renewed debate over free speech has made the British band's history particularly resonant, lead vocalist Rob Halford and co-director Tom Morello told Reuters.
    Speaking at the Berlin Film Festival, Halford recalled a highly politicised U.S. lawsuit in 1990 in which lawyers tried to link the band's music, which they said contained subliminal messages, to a double suicide pact. A judge dismissed the case.
    Halford said the group only later understood that the case could have set a sweeping precedent for policing art and "this whole business of censorship".
    Judas Priest showed how to weather that storm, said Morello, who is the guitarist for rock band Rage Against the Machine and co-directed with longtime music documentary filmmaker Sam Dunn.
    But "there’s got to be future victories if we're going to remain, if we're going to continue to have freedom of expression," added Morello, who recently headed a concert protesting the actions of ICE immigration agents in Minneapolis.
    Rights groups have condemned what they say is the Trump administration's intensified pressure on universities and the media in the U.S. through tactics including immigration enforcement and regulatory pressure, saying they are diluting rights like free speech. The administration rejects the claims and says it champions free speech.
    (Production, Maximilian Schwarz, Martin Schlicht, Miranda Murray, Swantje Stein)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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