7. Judas PriestBritish Steel
Many of the bands on this list are British. I was heavily influenced by British bands. At that particular time [Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, etc. were releasing music] there was just an overwhelming amount of great music from across the Pond, from The Beatles forward. There was so much quantity and quality. All of these bands, in one way or another, either spurted out each other or inspired each other or created a split for somebody to go a different way. That sort of environment, using my own experience, with what happened in our small town with a handful of bands, it was a healthy level of respect and competition at the same time that kind of spurred the growth of all our bands. I’d assume it would be the same for a lot of these UK bands.
To all metalheads, British Steel is one of the flagship records of all times. I dunno how many times I’ve been hanging with Dimebag [Darrell] and Vinnie Paul [from Pantera and Damageplan] and be cranking that record. You know, Dime always had a razor blade [pendant] around his neck and that’s because of this record. These are some of the first riffs I started really learning how to play. K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton are one of the all-time great dual guitars in metal, for sure, and Rob Halford is just the best. There’s nobody like him.
