Seven ages of rock - a history of rock music over the past 50 years

Judas Priest subliminal message suicide trial

1990

On 23 December 1985, Raymond Belknap (18) and James Vance (20), after a long alcohol and drug binge, made a suicide pact to kill themselves with a shot gun. Where Belknap succeeded, Vance failed to take his own life and blew away the bottom part of his face leaving him grossly disfigured.

When it later transpired that the pair had been listening to Judas Priest that afternoon, the parents saw someone they could blame for the tragedy. Judas Priest were taken to court in 1990 and the parents claimed that there were 'subliminal messages' in the music that encouraged the boys to commit suicide; such as "Try suicide," "Let's be dead," "do it, do it, do it." The band made a point of testifying in person at the proceedings, where they merely pointed that if they wanted to use subliminal messages in their music it would be tell the kids to buy more records.