Grinder

Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford wrote the lyric to "Grinder" as a commentary on how governments and corporations will treat people like meat, grinding them up and spitting them out, exploiting them for their means. The song is also an expression of the sexual tension Halford was feeling as a closeted gay man; he was "looking for meat," but took pains to keep his trysts discrete because he lived in fear of what would happen if his secret got out. When he finally came out in 1998, the backlash he feared didn't materialize. Fans voiced their support, and Halford became a source of support for gay metalheads.

Like all of the tracks on the landmark Judas Priest album British Steel, "Grinder" was written by Halford along with the group's guitarists, K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton, and recorded at the Tittenhurst Park estate once owned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Downing told Billboard he feels this is an important track. "I think it really laid down a lot of roots for what was to come in rock and metal through the '80s," he said. "A very full-on, straight 4/4 beat a la the AC/DC thing. It really helped to commercialize metal a lot, that kind of groove."

The gay dating app Grindr appeared in 2009. Rob Halford is wondering why they haven't asked to use this song.