Following the summer premiere of Judas Priest’s massively entertaining “War Pigs” cover, the NWOBHM greats have now unveiled an updated version of the Black Sabbath song — which amazingly also partners Priest with the late Ozzy Osbourne.
News of the dream team metal collab dropped earlier in the month, and it was explained over socials this week that this version of Paranoid’s classic anti-war song is being released as a charity single — proceeds will go to both The Glenn Tipton Parkinson’s Foundation and UK non-profit organization Cure Parkinson’s.
Notably, Priest guitarist Tipton had retired from full-time touring in 2018 after revealing his Parkinson’s diagnosis. Osbourne likewise suffered from Parkin 2, a form of Parkinson’s Disease, which he revealed in an interview in 2020.
Earlier in September, Priest frontman Rob Halford spoke on the origins of the “colossal” collaboration while on the Full Metal Jackie program. There, he noted that Sharon Osbourne had reached out to him after hearing the summertime cover, and wondered whether there could be a way to add Ozzy to that recording. Of course, Halford agreed.
“She approached me with this idea, she said, ‘I love your version of ‘War Pigs.’ Is there a way we can get Ozzy?’ I was [like], ‘You’re asking me? This is gonna happen.’”
He added of the framework: “So you get Ozzy singing a line and then I’m singing a line and Ozzy’s singing a line and I’m singing a line. It’s the first ever time in my entire life that I’ve been able to do a duet with Ozzy and I’m so eternally grateful and blessed that I was able to do that.”
As expected, “War Pigs – Charity Version” does indeed feature both Halford and Ozzy wrapping their signature vocal styles around Sabbath bassist-lyricist Geezer Butler’s protests against the infernal global war machine, and it likewise features guitar contributions from Tipton. You can hear how epically it all plays out via the player above.
The cover arrives as Judas Priest are on the road for a co-headlining North American tour with shock-rock great Alice Cooper. The tour, which also features support from Corrosion of Conformity, lands at Saratoga Springs, New York’s Broadview Stage at SPAC tonight (September 26th), and runs until the end of October.
You’ll find the remaining date details here.