Rob Halford On Slayer Court Case

04/14/2001 10:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Darren Davis

(4/14/01, 10 a.m. ET) -- At the end of this month, defense lawyers for Slayer and Sony Music should have their defense ready for a lawsuit filed by the family of a slain girl who is suing the band. Judas Priest finds it laughable that lawyers for the family have taken the case, which seeks to hold Slayer and Sony responsible for marketing music to three teens who tortured, killed, and raped Elyse Pahler in 1995.

Halford told LAUNCH of the suit: "I don't understand it. I really don't understand it. It just amazes me that these lawyers keep trying to convince a judge or a jury that these things can actually happen. It's ridiculous and it's completely and utterly insane. I just don't understand the reasoning behind it. I don't know whether it's the fact the guilty parties are so guilty they need to push the blame to somebody else, [or] whether they're so stupid to believe that they've got something legitimate to use as some kind of prosecuting device. But it's insane."

Halford added, "I don't know when this is going to go to trial or if the band will be there, presumably they will be, but they're going to go through the same ridiculous scenario that I went through with Priest in Reno in the early '90s and the tragedy is that people lose their lives, generally, out of the abuse of drugs and alcohol, and the music is the life saver. It's the connection to living, you know? But I guess we'll have to wait and see what the outcome of that is."

Halford told LAUNCH he sees the potential ramifications of the suit: "It opens up a whole can of worms because you say music kills people, and somebody will say I watched a movie by Warner Brothers... I watched Blair Witch and that made me kill somebody. It's just too ridiculous to conceive of, but it doesn't surprise me."

-- Darren Davis, New York

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