Everyone has a regrettable failed seduction story. Whether it’s a botched attempt at getting someone we liked into bed, or a fruitless advance that we’re later super-relieved fell through, we all know that moment of watching someone walk away and thinking, Well, that didn’t work…though maybe that’s okay. But while your story may be good, there’s no way it’s as good as Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford admitting that he once tried to seduce original Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Halford’s new book Confess: The Autobiography features pretty thorough coverage of the 1980 British Steel tour, in which Priest brought Iron Maiden along. Di’Anno, ever the brash, punk-ish character, apparently caused drama by telling the press his band would “blow Priest off stage every night” — and Halford decided to take the frontman at his word, in a way.
“We didn’t really hang out and banter with Maiden much on that tour, but maybe I took Di’Anno’s comment that he would blow Priest off stage too literally … because the one night we got drunk together, I tried to seduce him!” admitted Halford. “We went to my room to carry on drinking, but I was too pissed to try anything, and he was too pissed to even know what I wanted to try. … I think that was definitely for the best.”
Damn, if only it had happened.
Apparently, former Priest guitarist K. K. Downing didn’t take Di’Anno’s comment as lightly: “I went, ‘What the hell is this shit?…Why should we have Iron Maiden on tour if you’re gonna create this type of vibe before we’ve even met them, let alone done a show together…They didn’t blow the bollocks off Judas Priest. We were pretty well-established at the time, and those guys were coming up through the ranks…But it wasn’t a good atmosphere on the tour, and it’s not something I like to have happen.”
Rob Halford’s Confess: The Autobiography comes out September 29th on Hachette Books, and is available for preorder.
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Words by Chris Krovatin
