10 Craziest Musical Urban Legends

Metal on the whole has never really had the most pleasant experience in the public eye. For every metalhead looking to bang their head to these furious riffs, there's always a few people too uptight to really give it a fair chance. While the musicians in question tended to get off easy, no one would have suspected metal's godfathers to be on trial for their life.

As Judas Priest were riding high throughout the mid '80s, they were given a subpoena shortly before a gig by two families blaming them for their sons' death. Having killed themselves a few months prior, the parents were claiming that the music mesmerized their sons into committing suicide, citing the song Better By You Better Than Me as the most egregious example. Despite not even being a Judas Priest song (original by Spooky Tooth), the court worked every angle to try to catch Priest in the act, arguing that the phrase "DO IT" could be discerned if you played the record backward.

Even though Priest ended up walking away clean, it did impact their momentum going forward, from their weird experimentations on Turbo to Rob Halford eventually resigning from the Priesthood. For as many outlandish things happen in metal songs, there's no reason to think that they actually are trying to lead you towards death.