THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS — British heavy metal legends Judas Priest have just released a new (charity) version of “War Pigs” featuring the late Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne.

Judas Priest is fronted by vocalist Rob Halford who like Osbourne‘s Black Sabbath group, both hail from Birmingham England.

The singers have long been considered two of the heavy metal era’s greatest frontman.

In addition, they both sport equally legendary nicknames with Osbourne being coined the ‘Prince of Darkness‘ and Halford as the ‘Metal God‘.

Now the two are together forever on this “War Pigs” tribute track, just a short time after Osbourne‘s passing back in late July just weeks after his final concert at the ‘Back to the Beginning’ event on July 5th.

The following below was shared by Blabbermouth detailing the track and how the proceeds will be distributed.

JUDAS PRIEST‘s “charity” version of the BLACK SABBATH classic “War Pigs”, featuring SABBATH frontman Ozzy Osbourne, has just been released and can be streamed below.

All profits of Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd and Epic Records in the U.K. from audio streams, downloads, and physical sales of the recording will be donated to The Glenn Tipton Parkinson’s Foundation and Cure Parkinson’s.

In a recent interview with Full Metal Jackie‘s nationally syndicated radio show, JUDAS PRIEST‘s Rob Halford reflected on Osbourne‘s recent passing. Asked if he had a story in his experiences with Ozzy that spoke to who he was as a person beyond the concert stage, Rob said: “He gave everything on stage. When he walked out on the stage, he was always beaming. He loved his fans with such an extraordinary passion, but that existed offstage as well. Whenever I’d see him, if I went to see a show, the first thing he would say to me was, ‘Did you have a good time? Did you enjoy yourself? Was it great?’ And so that part of him as a person — he was always giving stuff. He was always giving out. He wasn’t a taking kind of a guy. He was always pushing stuff forward, paying it forward, whatever that expression is. So that part of Ozzy that we probably didn’t see much of existed when he wasn’t on stage.”

Halford continued: “He was an extraordinary man. And I think that opportunity that you had through Sharon [Osbourne, Ozzy‘s wife and manager] and working with ‘The Osbournes’, which was the first-ever reality TV show, he became our friend. You may not have ever met Ozzy, but you knew him as a family guy, and you knew him as being — he’s like us. There’s Ozzy on stage, but look at him at home. And I think that that’s what drew him even further into us with our love for Ozzy Osbourne and everything that he’s left us with.”

In early July, PRIEST released a cover of BLACK SABBATH‘s “War Pigs” ahead of the “Back To The Beginning” concert, which marked the original SABBATH lineup’s last-ever performance.

PRIEST was unable to appear at “Back To The Beginning” on July 5 in Birmingham, United Kingdom because the band was scheduled to perform at SCORPIONS‘ huge hometown 60th-anniversary concert at the Heinz Von Heiden Arena in Hannover, Germany on the very same day.

“It was a really difficult thing to say, ‘I can’t do it,’ but that was just the way the chips fell on that particular event,” Rob told Full Metal Jackie. “However, we were there in spirit, as we said in that brief little thing that we said for Ozzy on the big video screens. And probably even more important, the PRIEST homage to BLACK SABBATH with our — it’s not really a version; it’s JUDAS PRIEST playing BLACK SABBATH‘s ‘War Pigs’ to about as close as we possibly could. ‘Cause you don’t mess with a song like that. You give it the sounds that you have with your guitars, with your drums, with your bass, with your voice, and you do it in respect, and you do it in a way of saying thank you for BLACK SABBATH and what they did and what they leave us with with their great music.”

Read the full article over at Blabbermouth.

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