Judas Prit's Rob Halford looks back on g out as gay on MTV

Contents:

• WHY THE ONLY OPENLY GAY HEAVY METAL SUPERSTAR, JUDAS PRIT'S ROB HALFORD, HID HIS SEXUALY
• ROB HALFORD LOOKS BACK ON G OUT AS GAY ON MTV: “IT’S A GLOR MOMENT”
• ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY
• JUDAS PRIT VOLIST TALKED ABOUT COMG OUT AS GAY
• JUDAS PRIT VOLIST TALKED ABOUT COMG OUT AS GAY
• JUDAS PRIT ALWAYS KNEW ROB HALFORD WAS GAY, EX-MEMBER SPILLS
• JUDAS PRIEST'S IAN HILL: 'WE KNEW' ROB HALFORD WAS GAY BEFORE HE PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGED IT

WHY THE ONLY OPENLY GAY HEAVY METAL SUPERSTAR, JUDAS PRIT'S ROB HALFORD, HID HIS SEXUALY

Judas Prit ontman Rob Halford has always lived a loud and proud heavy metal life, but only 1998 durg an MTV terview did he bee the first metal in to announce he is gay. “I thk that every gay person has a bigger story to tell than jt, 'Hello, I'm out, 's me, '” Halford, who turned 69 last month, told me a phone terview ahead of the book’s publitn on Tuday.

He wanted to sce Iron Main sger Pl Di’Anno, and he sported bandanas onstage that were a lor-d ve to gay amid the lorful stori are darker moments, both terms of dtry algs and pecially keepg himself closeted for so long. Halford was born 1951, and homosexualy was illegal the U. While a few mastream metal ontwomen like Otep and Lzzy Hale have been open recent years about beg gay or bisexual, Halford remas the only major gay male metal fans are often attracted to the aggrsive and theraptic nature of the genre — ’s a great way to let out pent-up tratn and feel empowered — and many skew more to the right than some of their ins.

Judas Prit‘s Rob Halford has marked Pri month by reflectg on the moment he me out as gay on televisn. “And I said somethg to the effect of, ‘Well, speakg as a gay man, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

ROB HALFORD LOOKS BACK ON G OUT AS GAY ON MTV: “IT’S A GLOR MOMENT”

It was one of those gay sharp tak, ‘Oh my God, he’s e out. I thk if I’d…I still say today, if I’d have really thought this through, like today’s the day I’m gog to e out, maybe I even wouldn’t… maybe I may not have e out per se, bee ’s still a big moment for so many of , wh a close iend, wh someone at school, wh Mum and Dad, wh whomever, to actually say, ‘Hey, I’m a gay guy or I’m a gay girl.

“So wow, was jt this enormo feelg of eedom, and the prsure was gone, and there’s no more talkg behd your back bee you have all this ammunn of power as a gay person now, as an out gay person. “Mentally, on top of beg the gay man the closet, I had all the extra piec piled onto my life at that time.

ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY

Unlike his famo peers, Halford was navigatg heavy metal’s bchero, dg-fueled 1980s heyday and the heights of his own band’s stratospheric populary as a closeted gay man who was petrified about the potential nsequenc of revealg his te self. “What if got out that I was gay, fans didn’t want anythg to do wh a band onted by a queer, and killed Judas Prit stone ad?

” He soon had to open a new office Arizona to handle all of the grateful letters om queer fans thankg him for givg them the strength to live their own Halford CostelloNow, after livg the public’s electric eye for most of his life, heavy metal’s most famo tattooed leather daddy (who’s actually been as good as hched for 30 years and scrib his own sex life as “vanilla”) proudly refers to himself as “the stately homo of heavy metal. In honor of Pri Month, Judas Prit ontman Rob Halford — one of the first metal micians to e out as gay and certaly the most well-known at the time — has relled the story of how he announced his sexual orientatn to the world durg an MTV terview 1998, explag that he hadn’t planned to make the reveal that day but found an immediate relief. I thk if I’d… I still say today, if I’d have really thought this through, like today’s the day I’m gog to e out, maybe I even wouldn’t… maybe I may not have e out per se, bee ’s still a big moment for so many of , wh a close iend, wh someone at school, wh Mum and Dad, wh whomever, to actually say, ‘Hey, I’m a gay guy or I’m a gay girl.

Rob Halford, maly known for his work wh Judas Prit talked about g out as a gay durg his terview. He told the story and how he felt about beg a gay mician the late ’70s and about his announcement 1998.

JUDAS PRIT VOLIST TALKED ABOUT COMG OUT AS GAY

The Judas Prit Volist is the first metal in that me out as gay 1998. He me out as gay an MTV terview this year. It was one of those thgs where I’m at MTV New York, I’m talkg about a project that I was workg on, and the sual urse of the nversatn and I said somethg to the effect of, ‘Well, speakg as a gay man… blah blah blah blah blah.

It was one of those gay sharp tak of breath: ‘Oh my God!

He even wrote an tobgraphy lled “Confs” where Judas Prit volist Halford tells what he has gone through as a gay man the metal world. ”Halford recently spoke to Lour’s Pl Brannigan about his memori of g out as a gay man 1998.

JUDAS PRIT VOLIST TALKED ABOUT COMG OUT AS GAY

“I thk that for every gay guy or gay girl there’s a perd where you’re tryg to work out who you are, and n be que a difficult thg to do, bee there’s so much gog on your head, ” Halford says. ’ But was a different world at the start, not jt for me, but for gay guys and girls everywhere, and you kda had to fd a way to almost live a double life. ”“The fact that I ma the announcement at the time that I did, meant that when I me back to Prit, everyone knew I was gay, and there was no impact upon the band, whereas had I done that 1976, uld have had very different implitns for the band, ” he adms.

Rob Halford's Judas Prit bandmat knew the ontman was gay long before he me out 1998, but they kept his secret to protect the band's image. "We always knew Rob was gay, " Downg said on a recent appearance on the "No F**k' Regrets Wh Robb Flynn" podst. "What were the chanc of him beg gay (or, if he was, of admtg )?

JUDAS PRIT ALWAYS KNEW ROB HALFORD WAS GAY, EX-MEMBER SPILLS

And, of urse, the overridg fear that was to lim my existence for s: What if got out that I was gay and fans didn't want anythg to do wh a band onted by a queer, and killed Judas Prit stone ad? Wh Rob out of the closet, the band’s leather biker athetic took on an explicly gay dimensn, g shocked fans to claim that they had no ia. But there’s much more nuance to the way which Judas Prit’s songs are about queerns; ias that go far beyond the not-so-subtle nods towards gay sex.

Even one of Prit’s most ‘obvly queer’ songs, Hell Bent For Leather, had this extra dimensn to l like ‘Seek him here, seek him on the highway / Never knowg when he’ll appear’ evoke cisg, and beg followed directly by ‘Hear the roar as they sense the fear’ brgs to md the dangero anticipatn of lookg for love as a gay man the 1980s. Beg ught has a specific ronance when nsirg the fact that, spe of the Sexual Offenc Act of 1967 crimalisg gay sex to an extent, liberatn was a long way off.

JUDAS PRIEST'S IAN HILL: 'WE KNEW' ROB HALFORD WAS GAY BEFORE HE PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGED IT

Defenrs Of The Fah self was released agast a backdrop of anti-homosexual Conservative ernment rhetoric, wh Prime Mister Margaret Thatcher argug agast the fact that people have an “alienable right to be gay” her 1987 nference speech.

In fact, one of the strongt queer elements of Defenrs Of The Fah is the qut for a kd of personal liberatn; as if what’s beg fend is the right to be gay as much as anythg else.