The Judas Priest Trial: When Rock Music Was Put on Trial for a Tragedy
In the winter of 1985, a tragic event unfolded in Sparks, Nevada that would become one of the most infamous intersections of music, morality, and the law. Two young men—Raymond Belknap (18) and James Vance (20)—entered a church playground armed with a shotgun, made a suicide pact, and pulled the trigger. Belknap died instantly. Vance survived, but was left horribly disfigured. He later died in 1988 from complications tied to the injuries and a morphine overdose.
But the story didn't end with their deaths. It erupted into a courtroom battle that accused a British heavy metal band of planting subliminal messages designed to manipulate young minds into self-destruction. The band was Judas Priest, and the song at the center of the storm was “Better by You, Better Than Me.”
What followed was ...
