{"id":758104,"date":"2026-04-28T03:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/758104\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T03:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:54:11","slug":"the-cult-music-documentary-heavy-metal-parking-lot-turns-middle-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/758104\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cult Music Documentary \u2018Heavy Metal Parking Lot\u2019 Turns Middle-Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s hard to argue with that assessment. On the other hand, the film\u2019s feel-good ridiculousness risks obscuring the fact that Judas Priest had more depth than the Budweiser-chugging teens rocking out to party-and-rebellion anthems like \u201cLiving After Midnight\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019ve Got Another Thing Comin\u2019\u201d might have fully appreciated.<\/p>\n

\u201cElectric Eye,\u201d from the band\u2019s 1982 album \u201cScreaming for Vengeance,\u201d took on mass surveillance in the name of keeping \u201cthe country clean.\u201d While \u201cBreaking the Law\u201d hits incredibly hard, it was as much an acknowledgment of the economic pain gripping parts of the United Kingdom in the late \u201970s as it was a teenager-approved ode to anarchy. And in 1998, Halford became one of the few figures in pop \u2014 let alone heavy metal \u2014 to come out as gay during that era. Watching \u201cHeavy Metal Parking Lot\u201d today, this adds a level of irony to the tailgating scene\u2019s aggressively heterosexual vibe.<\/p>\n

Others have noticed these contradictions. In February, a new documentary on the band, \u201cThe Ballad of Judas Priest<\/a>,\u201d premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. Co-directed by the Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and the veteran metal documentarian Sam Dunn, it is meant as something of a correction, reminding modern viewers just how immense the band\u2019s influence was on rock music and culture.<\/p>\n

After unknowingly conquering their slice of the underground, Krulik and Heyn tried to leverage the popularity of \u201cHeavy Metal Parking Lot\u201d into more mainstream projects, with mixed success. In the early 2000s, the Trio TV network produced a short-lived series they created called \u201cParking Lot<\/a>.\u201d Episodes included \u201cDolly Parton Parking Lot,\u201d \u201cYanni Parking Lot,\u201d \u201cCher Parking Lot\u201d and \u201cCat Show Parking Lot\u201d \u2014 \u201calthough a lot of them didn\u2019t actually take place in a parking lot,\u201d Krulik, 65, said in a video interview. \u201cThey were a little liberal with the approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2001, after interest from Hollywood, the pair consulted on a feature film script titled \u201cHeavy Metal Parking Lot: The Movie,\u201d but it was never picked up.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, they\u2019ve seen very little money from the documentary. Which may be just as well, since they never secured a music license from Judas Priest or releases from their interview subjects, making their claim to ownership over the film legally murky.<\/p>\n

But whatever Krulik and Heyn lack in profit, they\u2019ve made up for in appreciation of their timeless tribute to teenage foolishness and freedom. \u201cIt\u2019s lightning in a bottle,\u201d Jorgensen said, adding, \u201cAll there was to do back then was to hang out with your friends, smoke cigarettes, drink beer, have sex, listen to music and go to work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s hard to argue with that assessment. On the other hand, the film\u2019s feel-good ridiculousness risks obscuring the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":758105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[311695,171,311696,311693,311697,6748,2581,311694,311698,975,49330,46370,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-758104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-documentary-films-and-programs","tag-entertainment","tag-halford","tag-heavy-metal-parking-lot-movie","tag-heyn","tag-jeff","tag-john","tag-judas-priest-music-group","tag-krulik","tag-music","tag-pop-and-rock-music","tag-rob","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116480315677178811","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}