Today would have been the 81st birthday of Phil Ochs, the 1960s protest/folk singer who in many ways still stands as one of the most urgent, intelligent, and political spokesman of his generation, and who probably would have gotten a lot more adoration and respect if he hadn’t lived under the shadow of his musical cohort Bob Dylan. 2021 also marks the 45th anniversary of the tragic death of Ochs, who died by hanging himself at his sister’s house in Far Rockaway, New York in April 1976. But it is Ochs’s life that is going to get the spotlight treatment here, and with overdue good measure.

Judas Priest will be headlining the first night of this year’s edition of Slipknot’s massive Knotfest festival, which takes place in San Bernadino, California on October 24th and 25th. In honor of the metal gods, this Massive Metal Monday takes us all the way back to 1977 for one of the band’s earliest breakthrough hits. “Diamonds and Rust” was actually composed by folk legend Joan Baez in 1974 and allegedly recounts her breakup with Bob Dylan a decade earlier. The lyrically altered and sonically turbocharged Priest version appears on the Sin After Sin album. The track remains a fan favorite and a staple of Priest live shows to this day.