To be the lead singer of your favorite band is any metal fan's dream come true. This dream did come true for one Judas Priest fan in 1996.
Rob Halford left the band, and he was replaced by Tim "Ripper" Owens, the lead singer of a Judas Priest tribute band.
This incident was said to be the inspiration for the movie "Rock Star".

'Nostradamus' is a concept album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, focusing on the 16th-century prophet Nostradamus. The band's first concept album, it was originally intended to be released in late 2006 before being pushed back to a 2007 release, and was finally released in June 2008 on Epic Records.

A music video was put into circulation for the song "Burn in Hell" from the Tim "Ripper" Owens-fronted album 'Jugulator', although a third of the song was removed in the final video.

Following the disappointing sales of the album 'Ram It Down' - which was itself an attempt at reconciling with the public over the perceived sellout 'Turbo' - Judas Priest decided to return to a less commercial sound by bringing some speed metal elements to the mix, which resulted in their most critically acclaimed album in a decade: 'Painkiller'.

Following the success of their 1984 album 'Defenders of the Faith' Judas Priest initially recorded a double album called 'Twin Turbos' which was never released. Instead the material was split, with the more commercial songs appearing on 'Turbo' in 1986, and many of the remainders later finding their way onto remastered re-releases as bonus tracks.

''Eat Me Alive" was listed at #3 on the Parents Music Resource Center's "Filthy Fifteen," a list of 15 songs the organization found most objectionable. PMRC co-founder Tipper Gore stated the song was about oral sex at gunpoint.

Screaming for Vengeance album was the first entire album released as downloadable content for the video games Rock Band and Rock Band 2

In 1980 Judas Priest garnered some airplay with "Breaking the Law" and "Living after Midnight" from their album 'British Steel'. As a result the band pursued a more radio-friendly direction on 'Point of Entry'.

In 2009 Judas Priest kicked off the 30th anniversary tour in the US playing the entire British Steel album live for the first time

An unfortunate legacy of Stained Class is the 1990 civil action brought against the band by the family of a teenager, James Vance, who entered a suicide pact with his friend Ray Belknap after listening to "Better By You, Better Than Me" on December 23, 1985. Belknap succeeded in killing himself, and Vance was left horribly disfigured. The suit alleged that the band recorded subliminal messages on the song that said "do it". The suit was eventually dismissed.

'Rocka Rolla' was recorded entirely "live" (i.e. all musicians playing simultaneously as in a concert, rather than the more popular method of each musician's parts being recorded separately and then mixing them).

The classic track "Savage" from the Stained Class album refers to the Savages in Aldous Huxley's book, "Brave New World".

In 1980, musicians were physically unable to put samples in songs, so the band created their own recordings of billiards, smashing milk bottles, and shaken trays of metal cutlery, to be used in their album 'British Steel'.

Found on the 'Sad Wings of Destiny' album, the song "Victim of Changes" came from a merging of two older songs. The songs were "Red Light Lady", brought by Halford from his previous band Hiroshima, and "Whiskey Woman", a stage classic since the time of the first Judas Priest led by Al Atkins.

In an interview on MTV in 1998, Rob Halford confirmed that he was gay. His sexual orientation was, to some degree, an open secret among fans and the heavy metal press, and the response from the heavy metal community has been generally supportive.

The band took their name from the song "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" performed by Bob Dylan on his 1967 album 'John Wesley Harding'.