JUDAS PRIEST’s ROB HALFORD Shares Funny MOTÖRHEAD Story: I’d Always End Up In LEMMY’s Lap

Lemmy Rob Halford

JUDAS PRIEST frontman Rob Halford recently answered a number of fan-submitted questions for the readers of Metal Hammer magazine.

When asked to share best Lemmy story, Halford responded: “We played lots of and lots of shows with MOTÖRHEAD and I always found it amusing that after they’d played Lemmy would put his hair in a turban. I made a point of going to see him after each show and I’d always end up sitting on Lemmy’s lap. Imagine that! The Metal God sitting on Lemmy’s lap, with his hair in a turban. 

“There’s also a bittersweet one regarding a photo on my Instagram,” he continued. “After a South American tour together we were heading back to Los Angeles. It had been a long, long flight. Lemmy had been sitting by himself and you generally didn’t want to get too close to him if that was the case, but I went and said thanks for a great tour. We had a bit of a chat and internally I felt something was going to happen. [Rob falls silent, trying to compose himself].

“Sorry… that’s an upsetting memory. I asked him for a selfie and he said f*ck off, but we took it anyway and it’s the last photograph of me and Lemmy together. I still miss Lem and everything he stands for in rock’n’roll. But the music will last forever. That’s what I tell myself whenever I’m feeling down.”

One of heavy metal’s all-time greats, JUDAS PRIEST will be celebrating their 50th anniversary this year with a world tour coming to the U.S. in the fall. The 50 Heavy Metal Years Tour will also feature SABATON as openers and is being fueled by the highest charting album of PRIEST’s career Firepower which peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200.

Tickets for the tour are available here.