British singer-songwriter Rob Halford, lead singer of the British band Judas Priest, gave an interview to the Songfacts website in November 2020. During the interview, Halford spoke about the sad story of “Out In The Cold”, a song from “Turbo “, Judas’ tenth studio album, released in 1986.
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“‘Out In The Cold’ has very personal lyrics because it references Brad, who I lost to suicide,” said Halford, referring to a romantic partner.
Halford and Brad met in 1985, when Judas performed at Live Aid, held in the USA. The couple had an intense relationship, but Brad had drug problems, which made the romance fall apart. On January 19, 1987, after he saw Halford, Brad took his own life.
“It’s simply a reflection on people I’ve lost – mostly relatives, like my grandparents and so on. It’s usually the more poignant songs that have a bit more personal reflection for me.
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‘Out In The Cold’ isn’t exclusively about Brad, but it certainly has him as a reference. In general, I write a lot of these songs without really thinking about them until much later, and then I think, ‘Ah… now I know where I was going with this particular lyric,” Halford added.
Years before writing “Out In The Cold”, Halford had written another lyric inspired by a love story. The song in question is the touching “Before The Dawn”, released in 1978.
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