Why Judas Priest's Synthy 'Turbo' Experiment Was a Bust

Judas Priest reigned supreme as heavy metal’s self-proclaimed 'Defenders of the Faith' during the first half of the ‘80s. So when they plunged into pop-metal on 1986’s 'Turbo,' the results were more than a little divisive among their loyal fans. Worse, the LP didn't lead to the pop-crossover smash they were looking for.
Watch this video to learn more about 'Turbo,' and tune into our Doomed to Fail? video series as we dust off ill-fated classic rock albums and determine whether they're hidden gems or better left forgotten.
0:00 Introduction
0:37 The band's rise to fame
0:54 Judas Priest wants a piece of the action
1:07 Rob Halford
1:27 The songs on Turbo
1:42 How Turbo was different
1:55 What went wrong
2:27 A crucial error
2:45 How Turbo performed
3:05 The road back
3:19 Conclusion
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[@JohnnyBargeldBoom]

I think Turbo has some really great tunes on it! I will listen to it again, after this video. thx

[@iago1616]

Don’t think it was doomed to fail. Just different. Had some great tunes. “Out in the Cold’ rocks.

[@klauswigsmith]

Turbo is a great album. Some people say it's bad, to them I say: most bands only wish they could write an album that "bad".

[@DrScott666]

Turbo is one of my FAVORITE priest albums!!! So what it's got Synths? So does most Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Dio, Ozzy, King Diamond, and Iron Maiden albums!!!

[@TheChadTI]

Buying it as a freshman in high school i understood what it was (a grab for mainstream acceptance) but I was behind it and rooting for them. Some of it was cheesy to me even at the time parental guidence ( lyrically) private property both made me cringe but Out In the Cold and Reckless while conforming to the new direction were much loved tracks.

[@josephconway1968]

First of all UCR, You're Doomed To Fail when you Fail to mention a Priest CLASSIC like Point Of Entry like it didn't exist!!! And when a band puts out two burners like Screaming For Vengence and Defenders Of The Faith, with Stunning album artwork, and follow them up with Miley Cyrus Metal with an Ice Cream Cone on the cover!!! I don't care if it does look similar to the other two!!!! That, Is A Failure Of EPIC Proportions!!!

[@craigsteinman9807]

Out in the cold was a great tune.on turbo

[@TheJpybus282]

Painkiller has sold over two million copies worldwide. Wouldn't that classify as a platinum album?

[@jeffjackson9679]

Think they are talking about US sales.

[@TheEWFX29]

Yeah every country has their own ranking system. So a platinum album in the US is a million copies but in other countries its different. Some countries platinum is 500,000 copies, others a bit more or less. So a platinum album is basically a great selling album in each country.

[@stevephenegar6347]

'Turbo Lover' is still a great song in concert. I can't believe the opener on the Fuel For Life Tour was 'Out In The Cold'. All those classic openers and they went with that one.

[@jeffjackson9679]

I had the album (or tape rather) "Priest...Live" from that tour, and they open with that song as you mention, and yeah, I always thought that was weird myself. Cool song with the synth opening, but a strange opener for a metal band. Would be kind of like seeing Metallica open up with "Nothing Else Matters" for a live show.

[@kevinsmith7-7-7]

Out In The Cold is an Awesome Song

[@DrScott666]

What's wrong with the Out in the Cold, and Locked In medley??? I think it should STILL be in their set and preformed that way!!!

[@lawrenceeustache9422]

it is a good album

[@mutantryeff]

Judas Priest stole wearing the leather and riding the Harley onto the stage from Blue Oyster Cult

[@derrickhuebner954]

Yep. BOC used to cover "Born To Be Wild" in their early days.

[@jeff-ds2pr]

The album easily went Gold, later platinum and they were playing to packed arenas in support to the album...yep, that's a "failure". lol. I'm not a fan of the album, has some cringy tracks on it ("Rock You All Around The World"), but it was hardly a commercial failure.

[@brianbarringer4309]

I haven’t listened to that album in years because it was a disappointment. I was a huge fan before that album came out and so I went out and bought it based on their previous music. I can remember listening to it and feeling underwhelmed. Oh well, artists sometimes release music that doesn’t appeal to everyone.

[@DrScott666]

Turbo is BAD ASS! Out in the Cold, Locked In, Reckless, Wild Nights Hot & Crazy Days! Fighting Shit-Libs like Tipper Gore, The Christian Right and ALL of D.C. at the same time to save Free Speech by telling them "We don't need no... No No! Parental guidance here!!! Casual Priest Fans complain about Glenn's obsession with synth guitars. Gonna complain about Dio and Ozzy's use of synths??? Deep Purple, Rainbow, Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Saxon, ManOWar, Mercyful Fate, UFO, Rush, Yes, and Boston ALL used sythns. And usually played by the same couple of guy's in ALL those bands... Shout out to Rick Wakeman, Jon Lord, and Don Airey for making rock and roll ambient and bad ass!!! Those 3 guys combined probably have more album sales than John, Paul, George and Ringo!!!

[@mrhairmetal]

I loved Turbo. It was just another side of their music. I think their history shows a lot of different sides.

[@DrScott666]

Halford and Ian Hill keep hinting in interviews that the new Priest album is very progressive in it's evolution and very different than ANYTHING they EVER put out... I'm sure casual Priest fans will hate it like Point of Entry, Tubo, and Nostradamus and will be completely ground breaking genius like those 3 albums most people can't hear! 🙉

[@MichaelMYouTube]

Judas Priest is my favorite band of all time (assuming we are only talking about RockaRolla to Screaming for Vengeance). I’ll pass on anything thereafter.

[@TheEWFX29]

You don't like Defenders of the Faith? I would say that was their last great album. Since then they never reached that height again. But they are still a great live band and they had some decent albums afterwards but to me DOTF was the last album in the Priest glory years.

[@MichaelMYouTube]

@@TheEWFX29 It is not in my rotation but based on your suggestion and the fact that we seem to have similar taste . . . I will definitely pull it out and give it another chance. It will probably be 30 years since I did . . . but Judas Priest deserves it! Best regards.

[@TheEWFX29]

@@MichaelMKZbin It was the logical step after Screaming but then they lost their way. I think they tried a heavy album and their sales weren't as good as they hoped. So they tried Turbo and then things were never the same.

[@DrScott666]

Defenders? Painkiller? FirePower? 🤦‍♂️

[@jayjaytee9944]

Turbo, has grown on me over the years, but Wild Nights Hot and Crazy Days is as horrible as the title suggests, never got into that song lol.

[@TheEWFX29]

To me Parental Guidance was the low point.

[@kengibbens5059]

reckless was good but the album was weak, Ram It Down wasn't much better, Painkiller was a wicked.

[@marcusduvall8538]

A closeted gay band in 1986 trying to become Van Halen, was never going to work out. Halford's sex songs were always about gay sex. Not exactly the kind of stuff that became big radio hits. And straight guys weren't going to rock to songs about Halford's gay sex life. When Turbo came out, Halford went from metal tough guy to looking like a total wimp and like William Katt of Greatest American Hero, but with much less hair. Even if Halford were straight, he was never going to appeal to women. There was simply no way for Priest to go mainstream. Before and after Halford came out, it was cringe inducing to watch Halford try to seem straight by putting the moves on MTV's Martha Quinn during the MTV coverage of 1985's Live Aid and again when Halford was flirting with girls in the crowd of Priest's Dallas Texas show filmed for Priest Live. Priest' s Ram It Down was even worse than Turbo. Priest showed one last glimpse of greatness with Painkiller. But their reunion album 'Angel Of Retribution' was even weaker then Turbo as it was phoned in, lazy filler material. Priest had nothing left when they reunited. Halford's vocal folds were blown. The band could no longer write great material and even though they were in their early 50's they seemed like 70 year olds. Priest has been a mediocre shadow of themselves for more years than they were great, which was not the entirety of 1973 to 1990. They certainly weren't great in the studio between 1984 to 1990. Priest has ruined their legacy and should no longer be considered a great band because since 2004 they have been terrible on stage and they have not produced a single classic song since 1990. Priest was a band that created some brilliant stuff here and there in their heyday years. But they were always held back from being mainstream because of terrible business decisions, an inability to grow beyond doing Sci-Fi kiddie crap made popular during the Star Wars years, and because of Halford's unattractive appearance and homosexuality at a time when people had low tolerance for gays. And to be brutally honest, Halford's voice simply did not have mainstream appeal.

[@UnYin99]

...imo...

[@timothyfoley240]

Priest never fully recovered after Point of Entry. Screaming for Vengeance had a few great moments, then all downhill from there. To be fair, the same could be said of Scorpions.

[@jeff-ds2pr]

All of their albums after Point of Entry all went Platinum up to Painkiller.@@timothyfoley240

[@timothyfoley240]

Turbo was awful. I'm sure the band is still privately distancing themselves from it. Priest should have embraced the thrash movement at the time.

[@DrScott666]

They Play Turbo Lover at EVERY show and played Out in the Cold recently on their last tour!!!

[@DrScott666]

Secondly I suggest Fight War of Words if you wanna thrash out... It's got a tight PanterA style groove too, Halford and Scott Travis I'm sure were inspired by them opening every night on the PAINKILLER tour.

[@Billyness]

Their last great album.

[@DrScott666]

You haven't gotten out much since 1986 huh? What about Painkiller, the rock opera concept album Nostradamus, or the newest "We fight this Fire power pulverize... Fire power between the eeeeeyeees!!! Fire power mortifies... Fire power man's demise!!!

[@JxT1957]

how about Ram it Down and Painkiller those are two awesome albums?