25 years ago today, a judge ruled that heavy-metal trendsetters Judas Priest were not liable for the deaths of two young men who cited the band's music as the reason they killed themselves, reports Kory Grow for RollingStone.com. One day in December 1985, the men — Raymond Belknap, then 18, and James Vance, 20 — had spent six hours drinking, smoking marijuana and listening to the metal band's Stained Class album, after which each man took a shotgun and shot himself. Belknap died instantly, but Vance lived, sustaining serious injuries that left him disfigured; he died three years later.

Before his death, Vance and his parents sued the band and their label at the time, CBS Records, for $6.2 million in damages. They claimed that Judas Priest had hidden subliminal messages like "try suicide," "do it" and "let's be dead" in their cover of Spooky Tooth's "Better by You, Better Than Me," influencing Vance and Belknap to form a suicide pact. The suit went to trial in July, 1990, and the prosecution played the song forward, backward and sped up in an attempt to prove the group had brainwashed these two young men into killing themselves.

The group's frontman, Rob Halford, testified in court that the supposed "backward masking" in the tune was the sound of him exhaling while singing. The band's attorneys also drew attention to Vance and Belknap's troubled childhoods and substance-abuse problems. The judge ultimately decided that the group was not responsible.

Below, Halford took some time to reflect on what was a landmark case in recorded music before he and the rest of Judas Priest readied themselves for a US tour this October.

“It feels like it was just yesterday, because it's such a strong memory. I remember walking up the steps every day at the courthouse in Reno, and feeling the incredible fan support that we had every day. All the local metalheads were there, chanting and holding up signs calling for us to be exonerated. And then there was just the tension and the sadness in the courthouse, because at the heart of the matter were these two guys that lost their lives tragically. These two boys were massive Priest fans, and that made it even more heart-wrenching that this terrible combination of the night and the drugs and the booze and their state of mind turned into something quite terrible.

“The case was very interesting, since it was about subliminal messages, plain and simple, and what they have the potential to do or not do. One of the first instances of the so-called "backward masking" I'd heard of was in Led Zeppelin songs. But in that case, it wasn't subliminal, it was allegedly audible. And weren't the Beatles accused of doing something like that?

“Either way, my interpretation of subliminal messages as we presented it was how in the old days you'd go to a movie and someone would insert a frame of film that suggested you buy popcorn. But even then, it was real and it was physical, because you could take that frame and go, "Look, there it is." You can't do that with words, because you have to actually hear them. And then if you can hear them, then how can they be subliminal or subconscious, like in a dream?

“It's a very, very intriguing subject matter, built in psychology. But I haven't got a clue. I'm just a fucking singer in a heavy-metal band. We were baffled by some of the things that were coming out in the courtroom.

“The trial shook us up, because it came from a country that we love dearly. We've always had this fantastic relationship with America. To come from a place that we love so much was a shock.”

Read more at RollingStone.com.