Judas Priest – The Story Behind Breaking The Law | Louder - video Dailymotion

Judas Priest singer Rob Halford tells the story behind the band's top 20 UK hit from 1980, Breaking The Law.

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC]

00:24 That song was written at John Lennon's former house in Tittenhurst Park,

00:33 just outside of London, with Tom Allen on the British Steel Sessions.

00:39 And we had about 30 days to write and record that album.

00:45 [MUSIC]

00:51 There was a time in the UK, particularly around the end of the 70s and

00:56 the early 80s, when this country was just, there was riots going on,

01:00 there was strikes going on.

01:02 There was a lot of pissed off people in this country, rightfully so.

01:06 [MUSIC]

01:11 As a lyricist, I'm always picking up on what's going on around me.

01:16 And I just remember seeing the news that night and

01:18 seeing all this stuff kicking off.

01:21 And it just made me feel about another area of the news,

01:26 which was that there was all these problems with young people leaving school or

01:32 university or college.

01:33 They'd been promised a job.

01:35 They'd been said, you know, if you complete all this and do all this,

01:40 you'll, you know, there'll be an opportunity to do this.

01:42 And there wasn't, which is sadly a bit like today's world.

01:47 [MUSIC]

01:50 The knee-jerk reaction for some people is to not exactly break the law,

01:56 but kick back at the system.

01:57 So we wrapped up that idea around this breaking the law.

02:02 There I was completely wasted out of work and down.

02:05 Well, there's your statement right away.

02:08 You're acknowledging a portion of society that's really,

02:13 you know, having a tough time in life.

02:16 [MUSIC]

02:19 It's almost a protest song, but it's just a very vibrant,

02:24 uplifting moment for

02:28 priests in our metal world, and it's become legendary.

02:33 [MUSIC]

02:43 It's in us all.

02:48 Not only the love of that priest song, but what that song represents,

02:52 breaking the law.

02:54 [MUSIC]