Out In The Cold Heading Out To The Highway Victim Of Changes Judas Priest

Out In The Cold Album: Turbo (1986)
Heading Out To The Highway Album: Point Of Entry (1981)
Victim Of Changes Album: Sad Wings Of Destiny (1976)
by Judas Priest

Out In The Cold is a very personal one for Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford, as the lyric was influenced by his lover, Brad, who committed suicide about a year after the song was released. They met in Philadelphia at an afterparty for Live Aid, which Judas Priest played on July 13, 1985. Halford had some flings on the road with various men, but Brad was his first lasting affair, and it made him "ecstatically, deliriously happy." This is reflected in the song, as Halford sings about their "wild nights, hot and crazy days" (he was still deep in the closet, but his bandmates knew very well he was gay).

Brad had a severe drug problem that strained their relationship, which began to unravel. On January 19, 1987, he killed himself after seeing Halford that day.

"'Out In The Cold' is not exclusively about Brad, but it definitely has him as a reference," Halford explained, "Generally, I write a lot of these songs without really thinking them through until much later on, and then I go, "Oh... now I know where I was going in that particular lyric.'"

The vocals on Out In The Cold were some of the first Rob Halford recorded sober, having recently gone through rehab. He was happy to learn that he could let it rip on the microphone without having a few drinks first.

On Out In The Cold, Judas Priest made use of their twin lead guitarists - K. K. Downing and Glenn Tipton - who wrote the song with Halford. Tipton played the intro and the second half of the solo; Downing played the second half of the solo.

Heading Out To The Highway evokes the open road. "That's freedom," Rob Halford said. "You've got the wheel and you're not going to let anybody else take your life away from you. You're out there into the great, vast landscape of life, and life is a highway. That's just a correlation between the two sets of things."

"Heading Out To The Highway" is a biker's anthem from a band very much associated with motorcycles... and leather. They started developing their leather look a few years earlier, a look that many metal bands emulated. Bikers have long worn leather, so it seemed like a natural fit when Rob Halford started riding a Harley on stage to kickstart their song "Hell Bent For Leather." Their drummer, Dave Holland, didn't take as well to the look: In the video, he pairs his leather jacket with a necktie.

Heading Out To The Highway was the lead single from the album Point Of Entry, Judas Priest's follow-up to their classic British Steel. Recorded in Ibiza, it wasn't nearly as inspired, in part because the band got a bit distracted on the party island. Their next album, Screaming For Vengeance, held up a lot better.

Directed by Julien Temple, the music video shows the band performing Heading Out To The Highway on an infinity curve painted to look like a desert highway. It was low-budget, but still better than many of the videos MTV, which went on the air that year (1981), had to choose from.

Victim Of Changes was composed by fusing two earlier songs. The main part of the song, including the riffs, came from "Whisky Woman," which was written in 1972 while original Priest singer Al Atkins was still in the band. The softer passage, building up tension for the climaxing ending of the song, came from a song singer Rob Halford had written called "Red Light Lady." K.K. Downing, Glenn Tipton, Rob Halford and Al Atkins are all credited for writing the song.

Victim Of Changes is known for its unusual intro, with Tipton and Downing playing a twin guitar harmony which slowly fades in, then ends in the main riff. In early writing stages, the intro was different, and similar to the intro that would be used for an unreleased Priest song called "Mother Sun."
The song's lyrics have been debated by Priest fans. The song seems to focus on a woman who is past her prime, which leads her to drown her sorrows in alcohol when she can't find a man anymore. At first glance, she might seem like the "Victim of Changes," but later in the song, the "I" of the lyrics (a man speaking to the woman) reveals a certain affection for her, and a dissatisfaction because he's lost her and he can't have her back, making him the victim. This has never been cleared up.

Victim Of Changes strongly added to Rob Halford's reputation as the "Metal God," as his singing and especially screaming has become legendary and largely influential. When Tim "Ripper" Owens auditioned to be Rob's replacement in 1996, they had him sing over a live version of the song with the vocals taken out. Said Owens: "I sang the very first line of 'Victim of Changes,' and Glenn (Tipton) said, 'Alright Owens, you've got the gig!" (Thanks to Michael Toney, who interviewed Owens for the book Tales From The Stage.)

Various bands have covered Victim Of Changes, including the German Power Metal band Gamma Ray.

This is one of the most popular Judas Priest songs, but you won't find it - the studio version, anyway - on any official compilation albums. That's because it's part of the band's second album, Sad Wings Of Destiny, which like their debut, was released on Gull Records. After releasing the album, Priest flew to Columbia, a much bigger label. After fortune shined, making Judas Priest one of the biggest names in metal, Columbia tried to buy those first two albums from Gull, but couldn't. Live versions of the song are sometimes used on compilations.

Victim Of Changes was produced by the band along with Jeffery Calvert and Max West, who a year earlier had a #1 UK hit as Typically Tropical with "Barbados," a reggae-ish song with an island vibe - not very metal. It sounds like a train wreck, but Calvert and West were studio wizards there to make sure everything was recorded and mixed properly, and with no interest in dictating their musical direction. The arrangement worked out very well and Judas Priest were thrilled with the results.

Asked in 2022 by Harley Roxx of Houston's Eagle and Rock Rage Radio to name his favorite Judas Priest track, guitarist Richie Faulkner replied: "It would probably be 'Victim Of Changes.' It's just an epic, epic song."

Rob Halford concurs, saying it's his favorite of all the song's he's written. "The way the dual guitars come in – because we were the first dual-guitar heavy-metal band – the bludgeoning riff, the singing going off, the unusual arrangement, the middle eight part where it goes very quiet, then it's a blistering Glenn Tipton lead break, full of blues and metal, and then it ends with a bang and a scream," he told The Guardian. "It's a beautiful song and if there's one song in metal that you could listen to, to get into the feel and vibe of the genre, I always suggest Victim of Changes."