Judas Priest’s Rob Halford Picks His 10 Favorite Songs of All Time

The "Metal God" — Judas Priest singer Rob Halford — recently was included among more than 250 musicians, journalists and other music industry figures who submitted ballots for Rolling Stone's newly revised ranking of the music magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."

On Sept. 21, the Priest icon broke down his Top 10 song picks in a new video, explaining the classic heavy metal cut he chose for No. 1 and extolling fellow metal legends such as Ozzy Osbourne and the late rockers Ronnie James Dio and Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister.

See Halford's picks near the bottom of this post.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the song that made the top of the Judas Priest vocalist's list is the Black Sabbath proto-metal anthem "Paranoid" from the band's 1970 sophomore album of the same name.

"'Paranoid' is my No. 1 song," Halford says before clarifying, "I'll tell you guys, all of these 10 are my No. 1 — but we have to do lists, right? So, at the top of the list is 'Paranoid' by Black Sabbath."

He continues, "It was one of these game-changing moments that we have in music because it brought out and brought forth a genre and a style of music that lit up the world. Particularly for me as a young musician at the time, 'Paranoid' just took off like a heavy metal rocket."

But while most of the singer's list is made of up of metal tunes, there are a couple near the tail end that venture out into different territory — for example, David Bowie's "Space Oddity" at No. 10.

Halford recalls he "saw [Bowie's] Ziggy Stardust [tour] in the U.K. … and I'm so thrilled that I have the memory of watching him walk out onstage and doing the whole Ziggy Stardust album. Out of all of the people that we talked about, Bowie … man, there's no one like him."

See Halford's other picks in the list below, and watch the video here. (According to Revolver, Rolling Stone's new "500 Greatest Songs" ranking only includes six metal tracks in the final list.)

Earlier this month, Halford, who is currently working on a solo blues album, brought some metal power to a new insurance commercial.

Rob Halford's 10 Favorite Songs of All Time

1. Black Sabbath, "Paranoid"
2. Slayer, "Angel of Death"
3. Dio, "Holy Diver"
4. Metallica, "Ride the Lightning"
5. Motorhead, "Ace of Spades"
6. Ozzy Osbourne, "Bark at the Moon"
7. Pantera, "Walk"
8. Scorpions, "Blackout"
9. Rage Against the Machine, "Bulls on Parade"
10. David Bowie, "Space Oddity"