Judas Priest

Earlier this summer I read Rob Halford's autobiography Confess. I really enjoyed the raw honesty on his personal life (it was a breath of fresh air compared with the shallowness in that aspect of Bruce's autobiography).

Learning what Jawbreaker is really about was quite illuminating too! :lol:
 
harrisdevot said:
Would you give us a clue? It isn't that obvious.
Click to expand...
Sure, I've boldened all the relevant words and phrases in the lyrics. :D
I mean... Words like load, explode, muscles all contorted, pressure, fuse, the damn title... Never mind that this is also from the same record as Eat Me Alive "spread eagled to the wall... You're well equipped to take it all...I'm gonna force you at gun-point to eat me alive"
Deadly as the viper
Peering from its coil
The poison there is coming to the boil
Ticking like a time bomb
The fuse is running short
On the verge of snapping if it's caught
And all the pressure that's been building up
For all the years it bore the load
The cracks appear, the frame starts to distort
It's ready to explode
Jawbreaker
Crouching in the corner
Wound up as a spring
Piercing eyes that flash are shimmering
Muscles are all contorted
Claws dug in the dirt
Every ounce of fiber on alert
And all the pressure that's been building up
For all the years it bore the load
The cracks appear, the frame starts to distort
It's ready to explode
Jawbreaker
And all the pressure that's been building up
For all the years it bore the load
The cracks appear, the frame starts to distort
It's ready to explode
Jawbreaker
Jawbreaker
Jawbreaker
Jawbreaker
 
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blabbermouth.net

ROB HALFORD Looks Back On JUDAS PRIEST's 'Turbo': 'When That Album Came Out, Everybody Wanted To Throw It In The Bin'

In a new interview with U.K.'s Planet Rock, Rob Halford spoke about JUDAS PRIEST's upcoming appearance at the 2026 edition of the Bloodstock Open Air festival, which will return to Catton Park, Walton-on-Trent, United Kingdom in August 2026 to celebrate its 25th anniversary. PRIEST's performance...
blabbermouth.net blabbermouth.net

Rob about Turbo album and days:

It's so difficult. My voice, I can belt it out for about an hour and 30, if I'm lucky. And it's a joy to be able to do this kind of singing with this beautiful band. You've got 30,000 metal maniacs singing 'I'm your turbo lover', but when that album came out, everybody wanted to throw it in the bin,". "'What is this? This ain't metal.' You know how a lot of bands — we go through different moods, different textures, different feelings as you progress. And what I love about PRIEST is we can be a 'Painkiller', be a 'Turbo Lover', be your 'Invincible Shield'. So, the fact that PRIEST is able to kind of create all this kind of music, but still put the heavy metal label on to it is important. But I am happy that 'Turbo' is embraced. I listened to it for the first time in years just a few days ago. But it's a good album. It was really well made. So we're gonna see what's on that record that we can bring to Bloodstock, besides the title track. We'll see if maybe we can add a couple of other tracks.
Much like everything that we've done, we've kind of reflected on where we've been and what we are trying to aim for next. The big thing about this record is that for the first time in a long time, we were able to take our time. The band was having a great time, especially in America, and there was a lot of that in the music on 'Turbo'.
 
Yax said:
Sure, I've boldened all the relevant words and phrases in the lyrics. :D
I mean... Words like load, explode, muscles all contorted, pressure, fuse, the damn title... Never mind that this is also from the same record as Eat Me Alive "spread eagled to the well... You're well equipped to take it all...I'm gonna force you at gun-point to eat me alive"
Deadly as the viper
Peering from its coil
The poison there is coming to the boil
Ticking like a time bomb
The fuse is running short
On the verge of snapping if it's caught
And all the pressure that's been building up
For all the years it bore the load
The cracks appear, the frame starts to distort
It's ready to explode
Jawbreaker
Crouching in the corner
Wound up as a spring
Piercing eyes that flash are shimmering
Muscles are all contorted
Claws dug in the dirt
Every ounce of fiber on alert
And all the pressure that's been building up
For all the years it bore the load
The cracks appear, the frame starts to distort
It's ready to explode
Jawbreaker
And all the pressure that's been building up
For all the years it bore the load
The cracks appear, the frame starts to distort
It's ready to explode
Jawbreaker
Jawbreaker
Jawbreaker
Jawbreaker
Click to expand...

I mean, it isn't subtle, but if you didn't know Rob was gay and had no other knowledge of his gay innuendo-laden songs, would you really still think it was about a big cock?

When I first heard the song I knew Rob was gay and knew a fair bit of Priest's music but I still didn't pick up on what it's supposed to be about. That might've been skewed by the fact that I'm certain I read somewhere that Glenn had written the lyrics. Glenn's lyrics do tend to be a little more simplistic than Rob's so I didn't question it.
 
Edington said:
I mean, it isn't subtle, but if you didn't know Rob was gay and had no other knowledge of his gay innuendo-laden songs, would you really still think it was about a big cock?

When I first heard the song I knew Rob was gay and knew a fair bit of Priest's music but I still didn't pick up on what it's supposed to be about. That might've been skewed by the fact that I'm certain I read somewhere that Glenn had written the lyrics. Glenn's lyrics do tend to be a little more simplistic than Rob's so I didn't question it.
Click to expand...
Honestly - Yes, because again, on the same record, there's Eat Me Alive where's there's no innuendo. It is explicit. It wouldn't be a far reach for me to get the sexual innuendo of Jawbreaker too, although probably not specifically the gay undertones, which requires more context.
 
I kind of think Priest fans in the 80's were wilfully ignorant of Halford being gay. I'm pretty sure that if pressed, most fans would have admitted they think he was, and also that a lot of the songs read with a gay subtext, but they just pretended to be oblivious to it.

It was brave of him to publicly come out back in 1998, and I think it's helped a lot to make homosexuality accepted in the metal scene much more than in some other subcultures, from my personal observations anyway. Nowadays, metal can't afford to be homophobic because that would mean disrespecting the one person who's probably done the most for its general image.
 
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