1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,480
Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.

2
00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:07,920
Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is

3
00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:19,919
Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. This is a story about death,

4
00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:27,120
Speaker 1: about suicide, censorship, idolatry, in the ruination of souls. It's

5
00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:31,720
Speaker 1: a story about Satan and Saint Michael, about leather studs

6
00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:38,400
Speaker 1: and cloved hoofs, and about heavy metal, specifically about heavy

7
00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:43,960
Speaker 1: metal icons. Judas Priest, a band who made great music.

8
00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:46,959
Speaker 1: Unlike that music. I played a few at the top

9
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:51,000
Speaker 1: of the show that wasn't great music. That was a

10
00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:54,400
Speaker 1: preset loop from my melotron called Dead Eyed and muscle

11
00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:55,600
Speaker 1: Bound MK.

12
00:00:56,360 --> 00:00:56,560
Speaker 2: Two.

13
00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:01,200
Speaker 1: I played you that loop because the rights to say

14
00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,800
Speaker 1: You Say Me by Lionel Richie. And why would I

15
00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:07,920
Speaker 1: play you that specific slice of it? Ain't easy like

16
00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:13,400
Speaker 1: Sunday Morning Cheese anymore? Could I afford it? Because that

17
00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:17,280
Speaker 1: was the number one song in America on December twenty third,

18
00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:20,640
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, and that was the day the two

19
00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:23,480
Speaker 1: young metal heads put a shotgun to their heads and

20
00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:27,280
Speaker 1: threatened not only their own existence but the future existence

21
00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:34,280
Speaker 1: of heavy metal. On this episode, suicide censorship, Satanic Panic,

22
00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:39,160
Speaker 1: Saint Michael, and the defenders of the faith. Judas priest,

23
00:01:39,480 --> 00:02:08,120
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is disgraceland. The young rocker

24
00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:12,000
Speaker 1: didn't know it yet, but he was a metalhead. It

25
00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:15,280
Speaker 1: was nineteen sixty nine and that term wouldn't come about

26
00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:18,919
Speaker 1: for another decade or so. But here in this Birmingham,

27
00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:23,840
Speaker 1: England church, he felt the heaviness. It tangled with a

28
00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:27,440
Speaker 1: very real sense of beauty, and that beauty was working

29
00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:30,440
Speaker 1: hard for itself, like a rare sunny day in the

30
00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:34,120
Speaker 1: dreary Midlands where he grew up, the light in the dark,

31
00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:39,639
Speaker 1: hope and gloom, and inside that contrast there was irony.

32
00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:45,400
Speaker 1: After all, this was a funeral. How could a funeral

33
00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:50,080
Speaker 1: be beautiful, especially a funeral for a kid? He didn't know.

34
00:02:50,639 --> 00:02:54,520
Speaker 1: It just was the saints above, their images cut and

35
00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:58,120
Speaker 1: kilmed into the stained glass windows, stared down at him.

36
00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:02,000
Speaker 1: The young metal head knew that the intended effect was warmth,

37
00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:05,919
Speaker 1: but right now, in his dirty denim with his long hair,

38
00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:09,880
Speaker 1: all he felt was judgment. Sitting among the square, working

39
00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:13,600
Speaker 1: class members of this community, he tried to remember the

40
00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:17,640
Speaker 1: ten commandments. Thou shalt not kill. That was one of them,

41
00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:21,000
Speaker 1: he was certain, but which one? And was there a

42
00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:30,079
Speaker 1: commandment that forbade one from killing oneself? The van rattled violently.

43
00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:34,000
Speaker 1: This machine wasn't built for speed, not this amount of

44
00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:37,360
Speaker 1: speed anyway, and his driver wasn't built for this world,

45
00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:41,000
Speaker 1: or so the kid thought. But that was okay, because

46
00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:49,160
Speaker 1: this world was about to end. That was a week

47
00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:52,600
Speaker 1: ago over in Hampstead Hill. The kid couldn't take it.

48
00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:55,200
Speaker 1: He drove his van as fast as he could into

49
00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:59,360
Speaker 1: a telephone kiosk on purpose. No amount of light was

50
00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:02,120
Speaker 1: going to over come as darkness, and there was no

51
00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:07,640
Speaker 1: more hope, only gloom. Evil a triumphed over good, despair

52
00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:12,000
Speaker 1: and certitude over faith. And now, at just eighteen years

53
00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:16,760
Speaker 1: of age, young John Perry was dead, and so were

54
00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:20,840
Speaker 1: the prospects of Birmingham's most promising young band of rockers,

55
00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:25,719
Speaker 1: Judas Priest. It was a damn shame, thought the young

56
00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:31,920
Speaker 1: metal Head would suicide kill Judas Priest, dead hanging from

57
00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:34,400
Speaker 1: a tree in the field of blood like Judas Iscariot.

58
00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:39,640
Speaker 1: Or would Judas Priest resurrect itself like Lazarus, or better yet,

59
00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:45,479
Speaker 1: like the man himself, the first rock star, Jesus Christ

60
00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:50,120
Speaker 1: Resurrection inspired. Maybe the young metal Head would replace John

61
00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:54,640
Speaker 1: Perry on guitar and judas priest. Should they continue? Thoughts

62
00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:58,200
Speaker 1: of resurrection continued and bled out from the organist stabs

63
00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:01,800
Speaker 1: at the Mighty Pipe organ soundtrack of Ambition and Grief,

64
00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:05,279
Speaker 1: and the organist rolled his head atop his slight shoulder

65
00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:07,919
Speaker 1: frame as he played. He looked up in a trance,

66
00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:11,960
Speaker 1: up at the icons and stained glass and the Saints

67
00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:17,240
Speaker 1: and disciples staring down at the mourners. Jesus's disciples, the

68
00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:22,000
Speaker 1: world's first groupies. That was it. Thou shalt have no

69
00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:26,159
Speaker 1: other gods before me, That was the first commandment. No

70
00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:30,839
Speaker 1: hero worship, no idols. It seems strange to the young

71
00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:33,279
Speaker 1: metal head looking up at the Bible's heroes looking down

72
00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:37,880
Speaker 1: at him. He supposed it was all easily explainable. The

73
00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:41,960
Speaker 1: Saints and Disciples weren't being worshiped, But what about Saint Michael.

74
00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:45,680
Speaker 1: The congregation leaned into the petition as one.

75
00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:51,719
Speaker 2: Saint Michael, the Archangel defend us at beur protection against

76
00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:55,640
Speaker 2: the wickedness and snares of the devil, Nay, God reviewed him.

77
00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:58,719
Speaker 2: We helply pray and do Thou, o, Prince of the

78
00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:02,640
Speaker 2: Heavenly Hosts, by the power of God, cast into health,

79
00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:06,080
Speaker 2: Satan and all the evil spirits who proud about the

80
00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:08,000
Speaker 2: world seeking the ruin of souls.

81
00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:14,080
Speaker 1: A man the ruin of souls? Now that was some

82
00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:18,520
Speaker 1: heavy shit. Saint Michael wasn't being worshiped, he was being

83
00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:21,920
Speaker 1: called upon to protect us. But what about the rock

84
00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:25,840
Speaker 1: stars he and his friends worshiped and idolized? What about

85
00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:29,560
Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendrix and that young local guitar god in the making,

86
00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:34,640
Speaker 1: Tony Iomi from Black Sabbath. Was he, this young metal

87
00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:38,400
Speaker 1: head here, guilty of hero worship himself, of idolatry, of

88
00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:43,400
Speaker 1: putting his gods before his God? Or was he just

89
00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:47,719
Speaker 1: a disciple maybe someday an archangel himself, or a heavy

90
00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:53,840
Speaker 1: metal saint KK Downey guitar player for Judas priest, sent

91
00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:58,080
Speaker 1: to protect rockers everywhere from the wickedness of shitty pop music.

92
00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:03,279
Speaker 1: Or was he just another evil spirit wandering through the

93
00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:11,960
Speaker 1: world for the ruin of souls? Leather Boys, Big Studs,

94
00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:17,880
Speaker 1: sn M Giants, Beasts among weaker bands, Rob Halford Junius

95
00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:21,360
Speaker 1: Priest singer papered the wall the coal hearn Arms Pub

96
00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:25,200
Speaker 1: a good distance from its iconic jshape bar, and took

97
00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:30,680
Speaker 1: in the scene wild, gorgeous gay men everywhere, and all

98
00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:35,200
Speaker 1: there for the same thing, liberation in whatever form they desired.

99
00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,960
Speaker 1: Almost anything went within the walls of coal hearn arms.

100
00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:42,360
Speaker 1: That is, of course, if they could keep the coppers out.

101
00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:47,440
Speaker 1: Homosexuality was partially decriminalized in England in nineteen sixty seven,

102
00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:50,360
Speaker 1: but that meant that it was still partially criminal in

103
00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:52,920
Speaker 1: the late seventies, So best keep your head on a

104
00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:57,480
Speaker 1: swivel for any rating bobbies looking to crack skulls. Violence,

105
00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:00,560
Speaker 1: the threat of it, and the stories about it. The

106
00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:04,360
Speaker 1: thrill of it was always prevalent. The thrill was why

107
00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:08,000
Speaker 1: rob was there. The men in leather, they were something

108
00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:11,080
Speaker 1: to look at, or to look up at, rather the

109
00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:14,240
Speaker 1: way they dressed head to toe in black leather and

110
00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:18,600
Speaker 1: studs over their muscular physiques, all of their muscles alive

111
00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:24,720
Speaker 1: except their faces. Their faces expressed dead, calm like bedrock,

112
00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:29,520
Speaker 1: but their eyes reflected fire in dominance. Then they moved

113
00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:34,400
Speaker 1: through the club like big game, slow plodding and oblivious

114
00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:38,640
Speaker 1: to the hunt. Disco Blared men made small talk about

115
00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:42,000
Speaker 1: safe words and sex crimes, where the best amal night

116
00:08:42,040 --> 00:08:45,679
Speaker 1: trade could be procured, News and mutilations out by the docks.

117
00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:49,640
Speaker 1: Floor shows over in the States, New York City's Rough

118
00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:54,320
Speaker 1: Trade was a different cut. Manhattan's Anvil Nightclub supposedly featured

119
00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:57,120
Speaker 1: cris gooed fists, fucking the willing and able on all

120
00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:00,640
Speaker 1: fours right there in public on Saturday nights, and the

121
00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:04,480
Speaker 1: Anvil it wasn't even a full time gay bar. Not

122
00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,560
Speaker 1: that New York City didn't have its problems, it did,

123
00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:13,520
Speaker 1: But London was different. London was more conservative, and here

124
00:09:13,559 --> 00:09:18,040
Speaker 1: in the Colhern Arms it was strictly leather. No policemen,

125
00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:23,440
Speaker 1: no firemen, no construction workers, and no fucking Indians. It

126
00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:28,319
Speaker 1: was all leather, just like where Rob Halford grew up

127
00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:31,800
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five miles away in Walsall, home

128
00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:35,440
Speaker 1: of a thriving leather manufacturing industry, a town where not

129
00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:39,040
Speaker 1: everyone was gay like Rob, but where most everyone wore leather,

130
00:09:40,559 --> 00:09:43,920
Speaker 1: and now so too with the straight boys and Rob's

131
00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:49,240
Speaker 1: band Judas Priest nineteen eighty was on the horizon, and

132
00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:53,200
Speaker 1: so were Judas Priests heavy metal fortunes. They'd broken out

133
00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:56,400
Speaker 1: of their hometown of Birmingham with their debut album rock

134
00:09:56,440 --> 00:10:00,079
Speaker 1: a Rolla and then a string of solid seventies long players,

135
00:10:00,760 --> 00:10:04,120
Speaker 1: but in order to truly break internationally in order to

136
00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:08,960
Speaker 1: achieve heavy metal icon status like Black Sabbath, their Birmingham predecessors,

137
00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:12,280
Speaker 1: who literally invented the genre of heavy metal from their

138
00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:16,800
Speaker 1: shared hometown. In order to do that, Judas Priest needed

139
00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:22,880
Speaker 1: something different, something beyond big riffs, defiant boogie and vengeful screams.

140
00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:27,680
Speaker 1: They needed great music, yes, and their next album, British Steel,

141
00:10:27,920 --> 00:10:32,280
Speaker 1: was indeed filled with great music, particularly the planned singles

142
00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:37,079
Speaker 1: Breaking the Law and Living After Midnight. But if Judas

143
00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:40,040
Speaker 1: Priest wanted to be iconic, they not only had a

144
00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:45,839
Speaker 1: sound iconic, they needed to look iconic. KK Downeing, Priest

145
00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:49,280
Speaker 1: guitar player, encouraged Rob Halferd to lean into not only

146
00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:52,160
Speaker 1: his leather roots from back in Walsall, but his leather

147
00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:55,439
Speaker 1: passionate the colhern arms as well and at all the

148
00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:58,040
Speaker 1: other leather bars rob as a closet and gay man

149
00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:02,240
Speaker 1: frequented while the band was on tour, and thus Judas

150
00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:07,679
Speaker 1: Priests badass heavy metal image was born there. It was

151
00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:10,480
Speaker 1: right there on the back of nineteen eighty's British Steel,

152
00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:13,480
Speaker 1: Rob Halford decked out from head to toe and skin

153
00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:18,200
Speaker 1: tight leather, straddling the microphone stand. KK Downing mid slash

154
00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:21,319
Speaker 1: of his flying V guitar, with studded leather bands running

155
00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:24,640
Speaker 1: up his forearms across the flesh of his exposed midriff.

156
00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:28,320
Speaker 1: Glenn Tipton on his black strat, with his black leather

157
00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:32,199
Speaker 1: jacket opened to reveal his chest. Bassist Ian Hill holding

158
00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:35,120
Speaker 1: it down, clad fully in black like some hard as

159
00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:38,960
Speaker 1: nail Saxon Warrior, propelled by Dave Holland leering over his

160
00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:44,760
Speaker 1: black kit. The look was and still is iconic. It

161
00:11:44,840 --> 00:11:49,200
Speaker 1: inspired a heavy metal uniform of sorts. Millions of metal heads,

162
00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:52,559
Speaker 1: most of them hetero, a minority of them surely homophobic.

163
00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:55,319
Speaker 1: From the day British Steel was released in April of

164
00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:58,800
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty were dressed in the same leather and studs.

165
00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:01,440
Speaker 1: Rob Halford Nick from the gay leather bars that he

166
00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:06,719
Speaker 1: hung out in once again. KK Downing was not oblivious

167
00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:10,080
Speaker 1: to the irony, but he, like the rest of Judas Priest,

168
00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:12,240
Speaker 1: who at the dawn of the new decade, were in

169
00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:16,840
Speaker 1: the midst of unprecedented success, was oblivious to the release

170
00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:20,040
Speaker 1: of a book from that same year, a book called

171
00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:25,640
Speaker 1: Michelle Remembers, a book that detailed violence and wandering evil

172
00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:28,719
Speaker 1: spirits in a way that no leather bar could ever

173
00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:32,080
Speaker 1: portend a book that would create in the United States

174
00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:37,120
Speaker 1: and Canada a Satanic panic, one that would ensnare judas priest,

175
00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,600
Speaker 1: just like the devil himself in the Ruin of not one,

176
00:12:41,160 --> 00:13:13,640
Speaker 1: but two teenage souls. Satan wants you, and he's coming

177
00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:17,400
Speaker 1: for you in a million different ways. Sometimes he's successful.

178
00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:21,600
Speaker 1: Sometimes Saint Michael in his celestial choir fight him off

179
00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:26,480
Speaker 1: and drown him out. Michelle remembers a book published in

180
00:13:26,559 --> 00:13:30,880
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty written by psychiatrist Larry Paster and his patient,

181
00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:34,520
Speaker 1: Michelle Smith, would have the world believe that Satan was

182
00:13:34,559 --> 00:13:39,160
Speaker 1: coming for their children at their daycare centers. The book

183
00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:43,360
Speaker 1: detailed Michelle's story as recounted to Pasitor through what was

184
00:13:43,400 --> 00:13:47,680
Speaker 1: called recovered memory therapy, a practice that has been since

185
00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:53,400
Speaker 1: denounced by the psychiatric community. Regardless, Michelle detailed her Satanic

186
00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:56,840
Speaker 1: possession from the age of five, when her parents handed

187
00:13:56,840 --> 00:14:00,760
Speaker 1: her over to a Satanic cult or her daycare center

188
00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:07,920
Speaker 1: in Saskatchewan, a Canadian province, mutilations, ritual murders, the killing

189
00:14:07,960 --> 00:14:11,760
Speaker 1: and torture of little children, babies. Even it led to

190
00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:16,120
Speaker 1: a case known as the Martinsville Nightmare, in which Michelle's

191
00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:22,080
Speaker 1: daycare center was investigated for satanic ritual abuse. Ultimately, nine

192
00:14:22,160 --> 00:14:25,560
Speaker 1: people from that daycare center faced charges, despite there being

193
00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:29,560
Speaker 1: no real evidence of any wrongdoing. Two women spent years

194
00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:34,200
Speaker 1: in prison before being exonerated. Several men, under pressure pleaded

195
00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:38,720
Speaker 1: guilty to lesser charges, and decades later, the prosecutions were

196
00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:42,560
Speaker 1: condemned as a miscarriage of justice and the convictions were overturned,

197
00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:50,280
Speaker 1: but of course the damage was by then long since done.

198
00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:52,560
Speaker 1: The lack of evidence that led to these convictions didn't

199
00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:55,240
Speaker 1: stop law enforcement in Canada and in the United States

200
00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:57,640
Speaker 1: due to the popularity of the Martinsville Nightmare case and

201
00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:01,920
Speaker 1: of the book Michelle remembers from it, instituting mandatory training

202
00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:05,440
Speaker 1: sessions for their officers on how to identify the signs

203
00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:12,240
Speaker 1: of satanic ritual abuse. Throughout North American suburbia, cops, teachers,

204
00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:15,320
Speaker 1: and others and positions of authority were all keyed up

205
00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:19,000
Speaker 1: on satanic panic and on high alert, searching for signs

206
00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:22,720
Speaker 1: of devil worship among their children and those influencing their kids.

207
00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:26,480
Speaker 1: And according to the norms in charge, there was plenty

208
00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:30,920
Speaker 1: to look for. Horned hands, goat headed figures, occult symbols,

209
00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:37,000
Speaker 1: ritualistic ephemera, candles, bondage, leather. It sounded like the cover

210
00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:41,040
Speaker 1: of an early eighties heavy metal album. Judas Priests didn't

211
00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:43,960
Speaker 1: go in for the whole horned hands, goat head bit,

212
00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:48,360
Speaker 1: but that didn't mean others like Venom didn't. As far

213
00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:53,080
Speaker 1: as other occult symbolism. Both Figurati Van Literal ACDC released

214
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:55,800
Speaker 1: an album that was entirely black, and they wrote it

215
00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:57,840
Speaker 1: up to charts partly on the back of a single

216
00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:03,320
Speaker 1: entitled Hell's Bells. This album, Back in Black, became the

217
00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:06,119
Speaker 1: best selling record of all time, only to be supplanted

218
00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:09,480
Speaker 1: shortly thereafter by none other than Michael Jackson in his

219
00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:15,320
Speaker 1: album Thriller def Leopard. Another promising heavy metal band from Sheffield, England,

220
00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:18,160
Speaker 1: a band that toured with Judas Priest in their early years,

221
00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:22,280
Speaker 1: released a record in nineteen eighty three called Pyromania. The

222
00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:25,640
Speaker 1: cover of that record a building in the crosshairs, its

223
00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:30,120
Speaker 1: top floors engulfed in a hellish inferno, And of course

224
00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:34,920
Speaker 1: there was Judas Priest from British Steel in nineteen eighty onward,

225
00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:38,720
Speaker 1: the band's image leaned even more fully into the leather

226
00:16:38,800 --> 00:16:44,640
Speaker 1: and studs walk into any metal heads Bedroom in the

227
00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:47,200
Speaker 1: early nineteen eighties, and he or she was likely to

228
00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:50,880
Speaker 1: have ACDC, Deaf Leopard and Judas Priest albums lying around.

229
00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:56,600
Speaker 1: But bands like ACDC and Deaf Leopards sold massively, Judas

230
00:16:56,600 --> 00:17:00,480
Speaker 1: Priest did not. Their record sold well, but as far

231
00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:03,320
Speaker 1: as popularity goes, compared to the Young Brothers and the

232
00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:07,000
Speaker 1: Boys from Sheffield, Priest was second tier at the record

233
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:11,760
Speaker 1: store checkout line. Their excellent album Defenders of the Faith,

234
00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:16,280
Speaker 1: only sold eight hundred thousand copies upon release. But none

235
00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:20,160
Speaker 1: of this means Priest weren't rock stars. They absolutely were,

236
00:17:20,720 --> 00:17:24,080
Speaker 1: and at this particular moment in nineteen eighty five, while

237
00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:26,399
Speaker 1: in the Bahamas, posted up at a resort bar on

238
00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:29,119
Speaker 1: break from recording their follow up to Defenders of the Faith,

239
00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:33,080
Speaker 1: the band was surrounded by groupies and not only were

240
00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:36,800
Speaker 1: they signing autographs and signing the breasts of their autograph seekers,

241
00:17:37,359 --> 00:17:39,520
Speaker 1: they were also signing the babies of one of the

242
00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:43,280
Speaker 1: women who sought their autographs, literally signing the heads of

243
00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:49,479
Speaker 1: twin newborns. But such hero worship was quickly brought to

244
00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:52,119
Speaker 1: an end by the news on the television screen up

245
00:17:52,119 --> 00:17:56,119
Speaker 1: above the bar, there was Tipper Gore the wife of

246
00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:59,639
Speaker 1: Democratic Senator Al Gore from Tennessee, and the head of

247
00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:05,000
Speaker 1: a new organization called the PMRC, short for the Parents

248
00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:09,360
Speaker 1: Music Resource Center, an organization whose mission was to increase

249
00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:13,520
Speaker 1: quote parental control over children's access to music deemed to

250
00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:19,720
Speaker 1: have violent, drug related, or sexual themes unquote. The question was, though,

251
00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:25,119
Speaker 1: who decides which content is harmful and which isn't. Essentially,

252
00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:29,359
Speaker 1: the PMRC was a censorship organization created by a board

253
00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:33,959
Speaker 1: housewife from Tennessee. Joseph Cors, the owner of Coors Beers,

254
00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:37,200
Speaker 1: and Mike Love, the singer from The Beach Boys, helped

255
00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:42,920
Speaker 1: fund the PMRC, But before Tipper Gore felt her calling

256
00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:46,399
Speaker 1: to found such an organization, she was sitting in rush

257
00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:49,080
Speaker 1: hour traffic in Washington, d C. With her eleven year

258
00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:52,919
Speaker 1: old daughter, Carrie. Carrie wanted to listen to the new

259
00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:56,359
Speaker 1: cassette Tipper had bought for Purple Rain by Prince and

260
00:18:56,400 --> 00:19:01,879
Speaker 1: the Revolution. The slinky sexy beat kicked the song in,

261
00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:05,560
Speaker 1: and Tipper nodded her head behind the wheel, no doubt

262
00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:09,480
Speaker 1: out of time. Her daughter seated next to her, grooved innocently.

263
00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:14,000
Speaker 1: The first verse started, and Prince sang I knew a

264
00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:16,679
Speaker 1: girl named Nikki. I guess he could say she was

265
00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:20,040
Speaker 1: a sex feed. Wait a minute, what what did he

266
00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:23,920
Speaker 1: just say? Before the senator's wife could register what was happening,

267
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:26,960
Speaker 1: Prince hit the second line of the first verse. I

268
00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:31,240
Speaker 1: met her in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine.

269
00:19:31,560 --> 00:19:36,240
Speaker 1: What the hell was happening? Tipper slammed the stopajack button

270
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:38,840
Speaker 1: on the car stereo. She then pulled over to examine

271
00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:40,920
Speaker 1: the cassette art and find the lyrics to make sure

272
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:43,359
Speaker 1: she wasn't hearing things. But she was out of luck.

273
00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:46,600
Speaker 1: The lyrics weren't printed on the Purple Rain album, and

274
00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:48,600
Speaker 1: Tipper Gore would have to do her research at a

275
00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:52,040
Speaker 1: later date, without her daughter by her side, perhaps with

276
00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:57,320
Speaker 1: the good Senator al behind closed doors. This was the

277
00:19:57,359 --> 00:20:00,800
Speaker 1: backdrop to the testimony Tipper Gore was now delivering in

278
00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:04,240
Speaker 1: front of the US Senate on live television, per and

279
00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:07,720
Speaker 1: her colleague's words being broadcast out across the bar about

280
00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:10,520
Speaker 1: some of that Bahamian bar's clientele at the moment, the

281
00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:15,520
Speaker 1: members of Jewish priest Susan Baker, Tipper Gore's co founder

282
00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:19,200
Speaker 1: at the PMRC, and the wife of then Treasury Secretary

283
00:20:19,359 --> 00:20:24,120
Speaker 1: James Baker presented briefing materials to the senators that fingered

284
00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:28,240
Speaker 1: Judas Priest as part of the problem, particularly as it

285
00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:31,440
Speaker 1: pertained to the issue of sado masochism and the occults

286
00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:34,359
Speaker 1: in the genre of heavy metal. It seemed that the

287
00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:38,560
Speaker 1: PMRC had quickly expanded their self assigned mandate from warnings

288
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:42,520
Speaker 1: about violence, drugs and sets to include the occult as

289
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:45,520
Speaker 1: well as the influence of the devil in popular music.

290
00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:49,160
Speaker 1: I have no way of proving it, but I would

291
00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:52,399
Speaker 1: bet a healthy amount of cash that Susan Baker and

292
00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,440
Speaker 1: Tipper Gore have been part of some DC wives book

293
00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:58,639
Speaker 1: club that recommended the book. Michelle remembers at one point

294
00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:04,800
Speaker 1: before the formation the PMRC regarding the occult i e. Satanism.

295
00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:08,520
Speaker 1: Other metal bands in addition to Judas Priest, Wasp and

296
00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:11,240
Speaker 1: Venom to name two, were listed as part of the

297
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:16,399
Speaker 1: pmr c's Notorious Filthy fifteen, a list of fifteen songs

298
00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:20,280
Speaker 1: by artists from all genres that the PMRC found to

299
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:25,240
Speaker 1: be egregiously objectionable. The artists, the songs, and the objectionable

300
00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:30,879
Speaker 1: lyrical content went as follows. Number one Prince Darling, Nicky,

301
00:21:31,359 --> 00:21:35,400
Speaker 1: Sex and Masturbation. Number two on the list, Sheena Easton

302
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:39,119
Speaker 1: Sugar Walls. Lyrical content that they found offensive was sex,

303
00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:43,320
Speaker 1: Judas Priest coming into number three, Eat Me Alive, suppose

304
00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:48,360
Speaker 1: the defensive lyrical content sex and violence number four, Vanity

305
00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:53,639
Speaker 1: strap On, Robbie Baby, sex number five, Motley Crue Bastard,

306
00:21:54,040 --> 00:21:58,520
Speaker 1: violence and language number six, ACDC, let Me put my

307
00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:02,800
Speaker 1: Love into You sex number seven, Twisted Sister, We're not

308
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:07,360
Speaker 1: gonna take it. Violence number eight, Madonna, Dress You Up.

309
00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:12,760
Speaker 1: Sex number nine, wasp animal parentheses, fuck like a Beast

310
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:17,960
Speaker 1: sex language, violence number ten, def Leopard high and dry parentheses,

311
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:21,760
Speaker 1: Saturday Night drug and alcohol use number eleven, Merciful Fate

312
00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:25,800
Speaker 1: into the Coven. The lyrics supposedly repped the occult number twelve,

313
00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:29,880
Speaker 1: Black Sabbath Trashed, drug and alcohol use number thirteen, Mary Jane,

314
00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:35,359
Speaker 1: Girls in My House Sex fourteen, Venom possessed the occult

315
00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:44,040
Speaker 1: number fifteen Cindi Lauper, she Bop sex and masturbation. Now.

316
00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:48,480
Speaker 1: The lyrics to Judas Priests Eat Me Alive are kind

317
00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:51,200
Speaker 1: of aim if I'm being honest, They sort of read

318
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:55,880
Speaker 1: like a sophomore stab at Prince's sexuality. The lyrics are comical.

319
00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:59,040
Speaker 1: They go bound to deliver as you give and I

320
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:05,680
Speaker 1: collect squealing in passion as the rod of Steel injects. Okay, dude,

321
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 1: try saying that to your wife after date night this

322
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:09,199
Speaker 1: weekend when you're hoping to get laid, and see how

323
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:11,439
Speaker 1: far you get. I'm not gay, but I would bet

324
00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:13,800
Speaker 1: the dudes don't find this hot in any real way either,

325
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,200
Speaker 1: even the leather Boys. I'm sure they have their own

326
00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:18,280
Speaker 1: version of over the top, but I'm betting it's less

327
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:23,359
Speaker 1: silly than the rot of Steel in jects. To his credit,

328
00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:27,720
Speaker 1: Rob Halford likened the songs ridiculously over sexualized lyrics to

329
00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:30,480
Speaker 1: spinal Tap. He said that the song was tongue in

330
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:34,399
Speaker 1: cheek about a consensual, over the top sexual fantasy. My

331
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,119
Speaker 1: point in all of this, I guess, is that I

332
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:40,119
Speaker 1: find the inclusion of eat Me Alive, along with a

333
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:44,440
Speaker 1: couple others on this list of Philthy fifteen, positively laughable.

334
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:48,240
Speaker 1: Including such a cartoonish come on on the list speaks

335
00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:51,600
Speaker 1: directly to the fundamental unseriousness of Tipper Gore in her

336
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:54,960
Speaker 1: organization and the senators who took her seriously. For that matter,

337
00:23:56,080 --> 00:23:59,959
Speaker 1: at the hearing, Senator Paula Hawkins a Republican from Florida

338
00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:03,399
Speaker 1: cited Judas Priest by name no doubt, looking for whatever

339
00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:05,399
Speaker 1: free press and covered to TV time she could gin

340
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:09,399
Speaker 1: up and the Senator describe Judas Priest as quote representative

341
00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:13,600
Speaker 1: of the most extreme examples of violent and sexual content

342
00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:19,560
Speaker 1: and rock. With this hearing, the PMRC was trying to

343
00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 1: get the record industry to agree to a content warning system,

344
00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:27,159
Speaker 1: a label on albums with lyrics these suburban moms deemed

345
00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:33,240
Speaker 1: sexually explicit, violent, drug related, or otherwise offensive. A couple

346
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:36,720
Speaker 1: other things came out of this hearing. One the Great

347
00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:41,280
Speaker 1: Frank Zappa, testified against the PMRC and pretty much torched them.

348
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:45,240
Speaker 1: The PMRC proposal is an ill conceived piece of nonsense

349
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:49,160
Speaker 1: which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes

350
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,000
Speaker 1: the civil liberties of people who are not children, and

351
00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:55,280
Speaker 1: promises to keep the courts busy for years. He said.

352
00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:00,480
Speaker 1: The PMRC was eager to have John Denver testify that he,

353
00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:04,359
Speaker 1: being the wholesome, bespectacled singer songwriter that he was, would

354
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 1: side with them, but that ploy backfired. Denver testified that

355
00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:13,520
Speaker 1: censorship was a slippery slope, recalling how his own innocuous

356
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,800
Speaker 1: song Rocky Mountain High had once been falsely accused of

357
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:24,120
Speaker 1: promoting drug use. However, despite such testimony, the RAA, that's

358
00:25:24,160 --> 00:25:28,439
Speaker 1: the Recording Industry Association of America, was in fact moved

359
00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:31,959
Speaker 1: to include a warning sticker on records deemed to contain

360
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:37,600
Speaker 1: explicit content, the now infamous black and white Parental Advisory label.

361
00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:42,640
Speaker 1: In an exchange with Republican Senator Slade Gordon from Washington,

362
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:47,720
Speaker 1: Frank Zappo was asked about the supposed existence of subliminal

363
00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:52,960
Speaker 1: messages on albums, secret messages planted there by musicians to

364
00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:58,840
Speaker 1: inspire children to turn to the devil. Zaba replied correctly

365
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:02,960
Speaker 1: that no one empirical evidence existed to prove subliminal messaging

366
00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:07,159
Speaker 1: existed on rock or heavy metal or any other records.

367
00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:13,920
Speaker 1: Back in the Bahamas KK downing of Judas Priests leaned

368
00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:17,119
Speaker 1: back on his beachside barstool and considered what had just

369
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:22,120
Speaker 1: transpired on CNN concerning his band. It was all rubbish.

370
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,400
Speaker 1: The PMRC and the senators who were buying into their bullshit,

371
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 1: and the record industry that was caving to their arbitrary

372
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: censorship demands were painting him in. His bandmates and his

373
00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:39,719
Speaker 1: friends and fellow musicians, as evildoers, as degenerates, prowling about

374
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:43,880
Speaker 1: for the ruin of souls. KK Downing wasn't in league

375
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:46,760
Speaker 1: with Satan. Neither were any of the other groups mentioned

376
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:50,160
Speaker 1: at that hearing, and that includes Venom, despite their song

377
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 1: entitled in League with Satan. KK Downing was in this

378
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:57,800
Speaker 1: business to sell records, to be a heavy metal icon,

379
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 1: like Tony Iomi before him and Jimmy Hendricks before him,

380
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 1: and despite whatever so called negative press this hearing would

381
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,679
Speaker 1: lay at the feet of Judas Priest. KK was smart

382
00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:12,119
Speaker 1: enough to know that warning labels on records would only

383
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:17,040
Speaker 1: mean more record sales. He smiled and sipped his cocktail.

384
00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:24,320
Speaker 1: Thousands of miles away. In a working class bedroom in Sparks, Nevada,

385
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:28,440
Speaker 1: two metal heads eighteen year old Raymond Bellknapp and twenty

386
00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 1: year old James Vance, lay back on the shag rug

387
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:35,320
Speaker 1: stoned out of their minds and took in the sounds

388
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:40,800
Speaker 1: of Judas Priest stained class while the devil readied himself,

389
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:57,639
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this. We're, we're, we're. It

390
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:03,440
Speaker 1: was the unforgivable sin despair. Judas Priest didn't say that

391
00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:08,199
Speaker 1: the whiskey Priest said that the main character from Graham

392
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:13,480
Speaker 1: Green's excellent nineteen forty novel The Power and the Glory.

393
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:19,200
Speaker 1: Raymond Belna and James Vance, forty five years later, had

394
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 1: no doubt never heard that literary quote, but they had

395
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:26,760
Speaker 1: heard Judas Priest and right now. On December twenty third,

396
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:29,800
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, they were loaded up on weed and

397
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:34,240
Speaker 1: cans of cheap domestic beer, endlessly spinning Judas Priest nineteen

398
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: seventy eight albums Stained Class. Specifically, they were spinning Priest

399
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 1: cover of Spooky Tooths better by You, Better than Me,

400
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: the third song on side one. Life sucked for Raymond

401
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:50,960
Speaker 1: and James, and the Judas Priest records seemed to confirm

402
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,680
Speaker 1: that fact, or at least it soundtracked the confirmation they

403
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:58,719
Speaker 1: received from the drugs and the alcohol. Raymond had been

404
00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 1: telling anyone who'd listened about the despair. He'd come to

405
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:05,720
Speaker 1: accept this his lot, no job, no girl. So for

406
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:09,520
Speaker 1: young Raymond here that meant no nothing. James was in

407
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 1: the same boat, but James, being the older of the two,

408
00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:18,720
Speaker 1: was the idea man. He had a solution. They killed themselves.

409
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:23,960
Speaker 1: Fuck this, fuck life, fuck worrying about the future, fuck

410
00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:28,400
Speaker 1: never getting laid. James was serious. He'd do it if

411
00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 1: Raymond would. Who was Raymond to argue? James always knew

412
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:36,360
Speaker 1: what was best. It was James who turned Raymond onto

413
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 1: judus priest. Raymond wanted to know when fucking now, dick

414
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 1: wad oh okay. Raymond was surprised, but he was still

415
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:51,320
Speaker 1: in James grabbed his stepdad's sawed off twelve gage. Out

416
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 1: back there was an old Pentecostal church, and Raymond pulled

417
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:58,040
Speaker 1: some beers from the fridge and they both stumbled outdoors

418
00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:01,480
Speaker 1: toward the church's playground. It was the right thing to do,

419
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 1: James explained. There was no fucking cavalry coming for them,

420
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 1: no guardian angels, no celestial choir, no intercession from Saint Michael,

421
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:17,440
Speaker 1: just gloom. Who was Raymond to argue? They sat on

422
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 1: the church playgrounds. Rickety Merry go round. Raymond had to

423
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:26,240
Speaker 1: go first, James explained. Raymond took James's word as gospel.

424
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: He grabbed the twelve gage, crushed what was left of

425
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 1: his beer, pointed the shotgun to his throat, and James

426
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:38,720
Speaker 1: looked on, half in shock, half with morbid curiosity. Raymond's

427
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:42,240
Speaker 1: eyes tightened into a focus James hadn't seen in weeks,

428
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 1: and James nodded, as if to vouchsafe the pact. Then

429
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:51,760
Speaker 1: Raymond pulled the trigger. The top of his head blasted

430
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 1: up above the Merry Go Round and rained down quickly

431
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:57,720
Speaker 1: on the scrubby, hallowed ground. Fear fired its way up

432
00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: into James's chest, speeding his heart to a raid. He'd

433
00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:06,200
Speaker 1: never felt. Panic momentarily overtook despair. Flight had vanquished whatever

434
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:10,160
Speaker 1: fight James had in reserve. He knew he'd be blamed

435
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:13,960
Speaker 1: for this. He couldn't accept that he'd grabbed the shotgun

436
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:16,600
Speaker 1: from his friend's death clutch, pointed the gun under his

437
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:19,640
Speaker 1: own chin, and he looked around the churchyard. He looked

438
00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:24,000
Speaker 1: beyond to his stepfather's house, and beyond that to Sparks, Nevada,

439
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:30,120
Speaker 1: and all he saw was despair. And that's when James

440
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:48,520
Speaker 1: pulled the trigger. All right, discuys w We're about eighty

441
00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: percent through this Judas Priest story, and we haven't touched

442
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:53,920
Speaker 1: on one of the darkest chapters yet, the shocking arrest

443
00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:57,640
Speaker 1: of Judas Priest drummer Dave Holland on charges of indecent

444
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 1: assault and attempted rape. Details and the outcome. They don't

445
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 1: quite fit into this story we're telling here in this

446
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 1: main episode, but they're too important and too disturbing to ignore.

447
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:14,320
Speaker 1: That's why today's exclusive mini episode is all about that

448
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 1: Dave Holland's story and what really happened and how it

449
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:20,200
Speaker 1: shook Judas Priest fans to their core. To hear it,

450
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:22,760
Speaker 1: you've got to be a Disgraceland All Access member. It's

451
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:25,840
Speaker 1: five ninety nine at disgrace landpod dot com and it

452
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:30,160
Speaker 1: unlocks ad free episodes plus more exclusives just like this one.

453
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:39,560
Speaker 1: All right, Back to our story, Famed record producer Eddie Kramer,

454
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:42,680
Speaker 1: about as expert a witness as one could get on

455
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:46,400
Speaker 1: the art and the science of recording technology, sat in

456
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 1: his studio with the members of Judas Priest. They were

457
00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:53,400
Speaker 1: painstakingly analyzing the sound of their version of Spooky Tooths

458
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 1: Better by You Better than Me being played backward. Eddie

459
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,000
Speaker 1: Kramer and the band were engaged in this ridiculous section

460
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 1: because Judas Priest and their record label CBS were being

461
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:06,560
Speaker 1: sued in civil court by the families of James Vance

462
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:12,080
Speaker 1: and Raymond Bellknapp. Raymond bell Knapp died but James Vance survived.

463
00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:16,480
Speaker 1: Albeit horribly disfigured, and he claimed that Judas Priest's lyrics

464
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 1: gave him the idea for the suicide Pact. The suit

465
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,600
Speaker 1: claimed that the band had purposefully included the phrase do

466
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 1: it in its recording of better by You, Better than Me.

467
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 1: Making the allegation more absurd was the fact that prosecutors

468
00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:34,360
Speaker 1: were claiming Judas Priest did this in a way that

469
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:37,080
Speaker 1: allowed for the phrase to be heard only if their

470
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:41,280
Speaker 1: record standed class was played backward, and that furthermore, the

471
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 1: band rob Halford, KK Downing and the rest of them

472
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:50,600
Speaker 1: did this to incite children to kill themselves. As insane

473
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:54,240
Speaker 1: as this sounds at the time, in nineteen eighty, this

474
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:59,480
Speaker 1: was quite serious business. The satanic panic that had taken

475
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:03,040
Speaker 1: root a decade earlier was still very much part of

476
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 1: the public consciousness. Ozzy Osbourne had gone through his own

477
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:11,000
Speaker 1: trial four years earlier over his song Suicide Solution. Thankfully,

478
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:14,600
Speaker 1: the judge dismissed the case, citing Ozzie's protection under the

479
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:20,200
Speaker 1: Constitution's First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech. Still, that decision

480
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:23,560
Speaker 1: meant nothing as far as Judas Priest was concerned. This

481
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:28,359
Speaker 1: was an entirely different matter. Records everywhere were still being

482
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:32,840
Speaker 1: affixed with the PMRC's toothless parental guidance sticker. While America

483
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:35,360
Speaker 1: was in the midst of a nasty culture war between

484
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 1: religious conservatives and liberal baby boomers grabbing institutional power and

485
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:42,960
Speaker 1: ways and numbers they'd never had before. The stakes were

486
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:47,200
Speaker 1: very real. If the prosecution was successful in proving the

487
00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:50,279
Speaker 1: Judas Priest was guilty responsible for the deaths of two

488
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:52,719
Speaker 1: young metal heads and on the hook for the six

489
00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:56,399
Speaker 1: point two million the dead kid's parents were seeking, then

490
00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:58,239
Speaker 1: the fate of heavy metal was very much up in

491
00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:02,640
Speaker 1: the air. Its doubt that in this environment, with this

492
00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 1: type of financial risk, that record labels would continue to

493
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:09,359
Speaker 1: back heavy metal bands, and this would then spell death

494
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:11,840
Speaker 1: for the genre as a viable commercial form of music.

495
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:15,920
Speaker 1: In other words, Priest, def Leppard, even Ozzie and all

496
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:22,400
Speaker 1: the rest would all be fucked. Talk about despair. The

497
00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:26,480
Speaker 1: band members and Judas Priest were a mess. For one thing,

498
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:29,839
Speaker 1: two of their fans were dead and the idea that

499
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:34,200
Speaker 1: they wanted their fans dead was patently absurd. And if

500
00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:36,839
Speaker 1: the band was defeated in the civil court case, they

501
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:39,880
Speaker 1: would be the ones responsible for killing the careers of

502
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:44,760
Speaker 1: countless heavy metal musicians, including their own. Such an outcome

503
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:47,520
Speaker 1: would ensure that Judas Priest would land far short of

504
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:51,840
Speaker 1: icon status. Hell in this scenario did not even be

505
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:55,759
Speaker 1: martyrs if proven guilty. They feared that in the eyes

506
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,440
Speaker 1: of the heavy metal community, they'd be something more akin

507
00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:05,520
Speaker 1: to their namesake, the Ultimate Betrayer, and so it was

508
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:09,400
Speaker 1: Preest guitarist Glenn Tipton's idea to go into the studio

509
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:12,200
Speaker 1: with Eddie Kramer. He later said of his thinking at

510
00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:15,480
Speaker 1: the time, it's a fact that if you play speech backwards,

511
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 1: some of it will seem to make sense. So I

512
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:20,279
Speaker 1: asked permission to go into a studio and find some

513
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:23,920
Speaker 1: perfectly innocent phonetic flukes. The lawyers didn't want to do it,

514
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,280
Speaker 1: but I insisted. We bought a copy of the Stained

515
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:30,640
Speaker 1: Class album in a local record shop, went into the studio,

516
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 1: recorded it to Tate, turned it over and played it backwards.

517
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,720
Speaker 1: Right away we found, Hey, ma, my chair is broken,

518
00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:40,759
Speaker 1: and give me a peppermint and help me keep a job.

519
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:47,560
Speaker 1: These findings were an extension of Frank Zappa's argument against

520
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:52,239
Speaker 1: the PMRC's absurd claim that musicians were including harmful subliminal

521
00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:55,600
Speaker 1: messages on their albums. The whole issue of hidden messages,

522
00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 1: Frank said, backward masking and all that if you play

523
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:01,560
Speaker 1: any record backwards long enough, you'll eventually hear what you

524
00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:04,239
Speaker 1: want to hear. It's the same as looking at clouds.

525
00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:07,600
Speaker 1: People see what they want. It's not scientific and it's

526
00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 1: not serious. The judge in the case against Judas Priest

527
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:15,400
Speaker 1: apparently agreed with Frank Zappa and was Glenn Tipton, in

528
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:19,960
Speaker 1: the defense, ruling that subliminal messages, if they exist, are

529
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 1: not protected speech under the First Amendment, but in this case,

530
00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:27,759
Speaker 1: no evidence was presented that Judas Priest placed subliminal messages

531
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 1: intentionally or subliminally to cause this tragic event. In the end,

532
00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:39,759
Speaker 1: the case was dismissed and Judas Priest and heavy metal prevailed.

533
00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 1: The band's next album, Painkiller, their first with new drummer

534
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:48,799
Speaker 1: Scott Travis, was released in nineteen ninety but despite it

535
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:53,480
Speaker 1: being an incredible achievement of heavy metal awesomeness, Rob Halford

536
00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:57,200
Speaker 1: departed the band a few years afterward. He was replaced

537
00:37:57,239 --> 00:38:00,800
Speaker 1: by Tim the Ripper Owens, while Rob pursued career making

538
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:05,319
Speaker 1: heavy music with other musicians. In nineteen ninety eight, unprompted.

539
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:09,240
Speaker 1: In a television interview with MTV's Kurt Loder, Rob Halford

540
00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:13,360
Speaker 1: apropos of nothing blurted. A lot of homophobia still exists

541
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 1: in the music world, in all kinds of music. I

542
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:18,879
Speaker 1: think it's time to break down that barrier. I'm gay.

543
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:22,000
Speaker 1: Most of us in the heavy metal community at the

544
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 1: time shrugged and said, yeah, no shit. The leather and

545
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:29,319
Speaker 1: studs kind of gave it away nearly two decades ago, dude, Regardless,

546
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,279
Speaker 1: Back in nineteen ninety eight, coming out was an act

547
00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:35,359
Speaker 1: of courage from Rob Halford when much of America still

548
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:39,279
Speaker 1: held on to its backward ideas about homosexuality. Who knows

549
00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:42,640
Speaker 1: what Tipper Gore thought, but the metal community continued to

550
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:46,480
Speaker 1: embrace Rob Halford just as it always had, doubly so

551
00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:51,560
Speaker 1: when he rejoined Judas Priest in the early two thousands,

552
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:56,200
Speaker 1: and now when this not so young anymore. Metal Head

553
00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:59,359
Speaker 1: sits in his pew on Sundays and looks up at

554
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 1: the stained glass saints staring down at him. He sees

555
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:06,440
Speaker 1: the church's defender, Saint Michael, and is reminded of one

556
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:09,880
Speaker 1: of his favorite live metal albums, and he wonders which

557
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:13,359
Speaker 1: metal bands deserve the vaunted status of heavy metal icon.

558
00:39:14,360 --> 00:39:18,200
Speaker 1: His mind goes to Black Sabbath, the founders, but then

559
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:22,680
Speaker 1: also very quickly to Judas Priest, like Saint Michael, the

560
00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:25,960
Speaker 1: Defenders of the Face A band, the Tipper Gore, and

561
00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:29,880
Speaker 1: other evildoers prowling about for the ruin of souls once

562
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 1: labeled a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Okay,

563
00:39:57,239 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 1: thanks for hanging with me and Judas Priest and Saint Micha.

564
00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:02,040
Speaker 1: If you want more of this story, if you want

565
00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:04,200
Speaker 1: to know what the hell happened with the bands drummer

566
00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:06,760
Speaker 1: Dave Holland and the sexual assaul case is sent into prison,

567
00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:09,160
Speaker 1: you can have that story in the Disgrace Lam mini

568
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:11,000
Speaker 1: episode coming up next to your feeds. But you need

569
00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:12,799
Speaker 1: to be an all access member, and if you ain't,

570
00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:15,000
Speaker 1: it's easy to sign up. Just go to disgrace lampod

571
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:18,240
Speaker 1: dot com. Sign up there with either Apple Podcasts or Patreon,

572
00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:21,720
Speaker 1: and unlock this and more exclusive content, along with ad

573
00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:24,760
Speaker 1: free listening and access to connect with the disco community

574
00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:28,160
Speaker 1: of music obsessives in the Disgraceland chat. Your support is

575
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:32,000
Speaker 1: very much appreciated. Okay. Question of the week, duh greatest

576
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:34,400
Speaker 1: metal band of all time? Who is it? And why?

577
00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:37,800
Speaker 1: Priest fans? I want to hear from you? Sabbath? Which Sabbath?

578
00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:40,879
Speaker 1: Ozzy Dio? What are we talking here? Metallica Slayer? Who

579
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:41,279
Speaker 1: who is it?

580
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:41,640
Speaker 2: Let me know?

581
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:43,120
Speaker 1: Get at me, let's duke get out in the after

582
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:45,319
Speaker 1: party six one seven nine oh six six sixty three eight.

583
00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:47,239
Speaker 1: Leave me a voicemail or send me a text with

584
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:49,560
Speaker 1: your answers and you might hear yourself in our bonus

585
00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:52,800
Speaker 1: episode coming up right after this at disgracelampod on the

586
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:56,279
Speaker 1: socials disgrace lampod at gmail dot com, electronic mail. All right,

587
00:40:56,400 --> 00:40:59,720
Speaker 1: here comes some credits. Disgracelaand was created by Yours Truly

588
00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:02,960
Speaker 1: in a produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for

589
00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:05,400
Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page

590
00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 1: at disgracelampod dot com. Rate and review the show and

591
00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:12,759
Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook at disgracelampod

592
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:16,879
Speaker 1: and on YouTube at YouTube dot com, slash at disgracelampod,

593
00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:24,120
Speaker 1: Rock a Roller, Hey the beddan Man