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DARK SECRETS: Pmrc - The Real Truth

‘I was called an enemy of the people’: how the US Senate went to war with the biggest rock stars of the 1980s

Forty years ago Prince, Madonna and Judas Priest were among stars dubbed the ‘Filthy Fifteen’ in a high-profile parents’ campaign against ‘objectionable’ music. Some of those artists, and supporters like Alice Cooper, recall a major moral panic

The Guardian - UK

Is the F-word offensive in Queensland? The tiny record shop that faced down a culture war in court – and won

Brisbane’s Rocking Horse Records turns 50 this year – but it should also be celebrated for its role in facing down a ‘nonsense’ culture war that began with undercover cops and the Dead Kennedys

The Guardian - AU

“I’d have been in the corner with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and a mound of coke. I was out of my tree. I needed help”: How Judas Priest rose above darkness and death to make Turbo, their most divisive album

1986’s Turbo remains the most underrated album Judas Priest’s catalogue

Metal Hammer

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“Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to talk to me. They thought I would be right for the part of The Terminator”: WASP frontman Blackie Lawless’ wild tales of Lemmy, Gene Simmons and The Village People

Metal Hammer

“The world had gone mad. The PMRC were trying to use all these great songs for their own agenda, which in the long run counted for nothing”: The story of Judas Priest’s Defenders Of The Faith, the album that Tipper Gore couldn’t silence

Controversy, chaos and “the heavy metal horn” – the story of Judas Priest’s 1984 album Defenders Of The Faith

Metal Hammer

“There’s a few stations that’ll play my music; very few, and usually after midnight”: Frank Zappa’s final print interview, and the 12 words he signed off with

In 1993 a future Prog writer landed a magazine interview with his hero – neither of them knowing it would his last

Louder

“MTV said, ‘When we look at bands like Mötley Crüe, we know it’s a joke.’ I’m not going to be some clown for MTV”: The twisted, turbulent story of Danzig’s classic Metallica-approved debut album

Danzig’s classic debut album was released on this day in 1988

Metal Hammer

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Judas Priest’s Rob Halford reflects on the PMRC: “It was a political hack job”

The Metal God has some stern words for the US government committee that named Judas Priest’s Eat Me Alive as one of its “filthy 15” songs

Metal Hammer

Ten songs that fought back against the PMRC

In 80s America, the Parents Music Resource Center sought to censor music by imposing a series of draconian rules. Here’s how a group of rock, metal and punk bands fought back

Metal Hammer

Demons, hair metal and Ozzy Osbourne playing a priest: Why Trick Or Treat is the 80s’ unsung metal horror classic

In 1986, director Charles Martin Smith made an underrated horror movie lambasting the PMRC – and he got Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne and Motörhead to help.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger

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