Drugs, Sex, & Rock 'N' Roll Can Take Its Toll – Here's How Addiction Destroyed Heavy Metal Band Judas Priest

Drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll is a three-fold staple in the history of most rock groups that rose to fame in the '70s and '80s.

But for heavy metal band Judas Priest, it was the drugs that that led to its demise.

By that point, lead singer Rob Halford was snorting copious amounts of cocaine and drinking heavily both on and off stage.

"Rob's drinking was definitely ramping up at that point because he used to only take water on stage," recalls music critic Sylvie Simmons. "But now it was Smirnoff, neat Smirnoff."

The documentary zeroes in on the group's lead guitarist, Glenn Tipton, as he was known as the biggest partier of the bunch.

"They were having some problems with Glenn in the late '70s; he was a party animal, Glenn was, absolutely," recalls Judas Priest's original manager, Dave Corke.

"Promoters would come in and put bags of cocaine on the coffee table as to say, 'There you go, guys. You've sold out the arena for us. There's a reward,'" recalls K.K. Downing, Judas Priest guitarist and co-founder.

Though booze and drugs were everywhere, all the time, the guys did not all partake so heavily. In fact, Downing appears sad while discussing how he remembers substance abuse and addiction taking a toll on the band's performance and the audience experience.

"A lot of song speeding up was going on stage, which got to be a bit annoying, really," he laments of the group's coke-fueled jams. "I don't think people wanted to hear a song five times faster than we'd written it."

While Judas Priest continues to tour into 2022, only two of the original group members remain in the lineup.