Judas Priest again fell short of making the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, despite being one of the top-voted artists by the fans.

Unlike many British rockers, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford admires the Rock Hall and has often lobbied on its behalf for inclusion.

The Rock Hall has historically done its darnedest to ignore heavy metal — the institution didn't induct Black Sabbath until 2006. Metallica followed three years later. Other than those two, there aren't any other bonafide metal acts in the Hall — just metal-adjacent acts like Nirvana, Deep Purple, Rush and a few more pop-friendly hard rockers from the '80s.

Judas Priest comes from the same English city as Black Sabbath and started just a few years afterwards. Priest remains as big a live concert draw as Sabbath was and has nearly as many mainstream hits, yet still hasn't made the Hall of Fame, despite having eligibility since 1999.

For Halford, there's no question Priest deserves to be included in the Hall of Fame alongside its legendary peers.

“The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame isn’t any different from those other institutions they have in America, like the one for football, where you’ll always get some people complaining one player deserves to be there over another,” Halford told NME.

The Metal God, who read his 2017 Rock Hall rejection letter live on the radio, admitted that he feels passionately about his band's place in music history. But he also understands that such awards pale in comparison to the undying support from Priest's passionate and still-growing fanbase.

“Emotions always run high whenever these awards take place," he continued. "But I’ve always supported it – only because of the company we’d be in. I think if any metal band deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, it’s Priest, and beyond that, there needs to be more metal there because there’s not enough.”

Halford name-checked Iron Maiden and Motörhead as other metal acts deserving of enshrinement.

This year's Rock Hall inductees include Nine Inch Nails, T-Rex, Depeche Mode, Notorious B.I.G., Whitney Houston and The Doobie Brothers.

The ceremony was delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will take place Nov. 7 and can be viewed live on HBO and HBO Max.

Photo: Getty Images

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Saturday, July 27, 2019

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