Songfacts®:

• Frontman Rob Halford explained the meaning of this song: "It's all about how you're able to react to confrontation. Don't let these things beat you down. Lightning is striking because it's the light that pulls you out of darkness."
• This is the lead single from Firepower, the first Judas Priest studio album to be produced by Tom Allom since their seminal 1980s records. Allom produced every Judas Priest release from 1979's Unleashed In The East to 1988's Ram It Down. Bassist Ian Hill told Revolver: "Tom Allom has been with us since 1979, so his knowledge of ourselves and our music in general is immense. We went back to the organic way of recording where it's all of us in a room and we got to play together."
  
  Andy Sneap (Saxon, Accept) was also part of the production team. "Tom Allom has got this classic metal thing," frontman Rob Halford said, "and Andy is a bit more of a 'modern metal producer,' but his thinking is a little bit different to Tom's. And I think to get this balance between that classic old school metal to what Andy's world is was just a remarkable coalescence."
• Singer Rob Halford stated about "Lightning Strike": "To me, the overall concept of this song is to use the element of a lightning strike to pull away and tear apart at an individual, at a body of people, maybe an organization, maybe an administration, that is kind of leading you, or leading us, into potentially a destructive place. You're kind of spinning that effect round, and you have the right to react and to do something about it. So that, in essence, is what this song is all about."
• Halford is particularly fond of the line, "the collusion of fear and torment."
  
  "This was the right time to use the word 'collusion,' he said."
• Asked by Lords Of Metal why Judas Priest chose to lead Firepower with this track, Richie Faulkner replied:
  
  "I think it one of the most straightforward, classic sounding songs on the record. It's not a progressive rock track, it's a short and sharp song and it's classic Priest. It's got the screaming vocals, the melody, the thunderous drums and bass, the harmonies, which make it a great song to put out there. It's really meant to alert everyone that Priest has got a new record coming out and if we would have used one of the more progressive songs of the album, it wouldn't have had so much impact."
• Rob Halford told the Chicago Tribune that though he rarely touches upon politics, he went in that direction with this song.
  
  "Judas Priest are not a political band, but I think we find a way to put our feelings and ideas into the songs, whereby our fans can extrapolate their own views," he said. "I'm an older metalhead, and I'm a lot more opinionated than I used to be. I kind of have to bite my tongue sometimes with my lyrics."