Rob Halford talks the inspiration behind Judas Priest’s heavy metal classic “Breaking the Law” in an exclusive clip from the band’s upcoming documentary The Ballad of Judas Priest ahead of its world premiere this week.
The song, released in 1980 on Judas Priest’s British Steel, was recorded amid the British working class’ uprising against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government.
‘Breaking the Law’ is a revolution song,” Halford said in the clip. “You’d watch the news every night and you see all this conflict going on. With the pain and the suffering of some of the British working class people. Rioting and striking because of their rage.”
As for the song’s music video, featuring Judas Priest robbing a bank with loud guitars instead of guns in order to steal a British Steel gold record, Halford added, “We’re not going into the band to steal the money, we’re going into the band to steal the album. Maybe it was just a metaphor of you cannot cage this music, you cannot put this music behind bars.”
In addition to Halford and other band members, The Ballad of Judas Priest features interviews with Billy Corgan, Lzzy Hale, Run-DMC’s Daryl McDaniels, Anthrax’s Scott Ian, and Tom Morello, who serves as co-director of the documentary alongside Sam Dunn.
“‘Breaking the Law’ is like some Ice Cube shit, if you read the lyrics,” McDaniels says in the clip.
The Ballad of Judas Priest will trace the heavy-metal band’s half-century legacy, from its roots in Birmingham, England, to its climb to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. With the arrival of 2024’s Invincible Shield, Judas Priest became the first metal act to release albums 50 years apart, as their debut LP, Rocka Rolla, was unleashed in 1974. The band has put out 19 studio albums in that span.
The documentary, which will premiere at this week’s 2026 Berlin International Film Festival, also boasts interviews with Dave Grohl, Kirk Hammett, Jack Black, and the late Ozzy Osbourne.
“While some may know Judas Priest for their huge hits that have shaped the heavy-metal genre, there is so much more to their story,” Morello and Dunn previously said in a statement. “Tracing their incredible 50-year journey, this film will capture how Judas Priest both defined the sound and look of metal, but also made it a more inclusive place along the way. We are grateful to the band for allowing us such intimate, unfiltered access to their lives and look forward to bringing this film to the metal masses around the world.”
“We have lived and breathed metal for over five decades, and finally in this documentary we are summoning our congregation to officially witness our lives uncensored, in a never-before-seen way … the cassock comes off, revealing Priest in all its metal glory,” the band said in a joint statement.
