Judas Priest’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this month was quite the moment, featuring the much-vaunted return of K.K. Downing and a stirring speech about community and equality in metal from frontman Rob Halford. Now Megadeth have celebrated the long-awaited honor by releasing a cover of Judas Priest hit Delivering the Goods.
The single has been released exclusively on Amazon Music and represents the latest instalment in a long history of Priest fandom for Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine.
Earlier this year, Mustaine told Pandora’s Tales From the Metalverse that his love for the band even led to physical injury.
“Judas priest was a band that I paid for dearly growing up,” said Mustaine.
“I had the Sad Wings of Destiny album. I was playing it at the house I was living in at the time, which was my older sister’s house. Her husband came home, [who] was a 6’6 Scottish guy. He was the chief of police in Stanton, California, and he heard me listening to Judas Priest and smacked me in the face.
“I was literally gobsmacked, but I was just blown away that he’d hit me in the face. So, I figured I was gonna really love this band now, just to spite you. And I was a big Judas Priest fan for a long time. And we ended up going out on tour with them on the Painkiller tour.”
That said, the relationship between the two band’s touring entities has not always been entirely smooth. In July, at Barcelona’s Rock Fest, Mustaine paused Megadeth’s set after becoming visibly annoyed with Judas Priest’s guitar tech, who was carrying out a soundcheck on another stage, eventually describing the tech as “fucking pathetic” and “an amateur piece of shit”.
Nonetheless, it seems that Mustaine has not let the experience tarnish his love of Priest, or stand in the way of commemorating their recent accomplishment.
As Megadeth mention above, the full 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony airs on HBO tomorrow (November 19) at 8PM ET.
