JUDAS PRIEST's ROB HALFORD On His Life As Gay Man: 'In Some Parts Of The World, People Like Me Get Thrown Off Buildgs'

Contents:

• JUDAS PRIT ALWAYS KNEW ROB HALFORD WAS GAY, EX-MEMBER SPILLS
• JUDAS PRIT ALWAYS KNEW ROB HALFORD WAS GAY, EX-MEMBER SPILLS
• ROB HALFORD LOOKS BACK ON G OUT AS GAY ON MTV: “IT’S A GLOR MOMENT”
• JUDAS PRIEST'S ROB HALFORD ON HIS LIFE AS GAY MAN: 'IN SOME PARTS OF THE WORLD, PEOPLE LIKE ME GET THROWN OFF BUILDGS'
• JUDAS PRIEST'S IAN HILL: 'WE KNEW' ROB HALFORD WAS GAY BEFORE HE PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGED IT
• ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY

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

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. Halford is now phg back agast the way the life-or-ath reali are often mimized or even dismissed.“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 fans.But 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.K.

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

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 in.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. 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 )? 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?

Judas Prit‘s Rob Halford has marked Pri month by reflectg on the moment he me out as gay on televisn.

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

“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, ‘Oh my God, he’s e out.

JUDAS PRIEST'S ROB HALFORD ON HIS LIFE AS GAY MAN: 'IN SOME PARTS OF THE WORLD, PEOPLE LIKE ME GET THROWN OFF BUILDGS'

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.

Durg an Augt 15 appearance on Fox Sports 910 AM's "The Freaks Wh Kenny And Crash" rad show Phoenix, Arizona, JUDAS PRIEST sger Rob Halford spoke about the discrimatn that the LGBT muny still fac spe the broad social acceptance of homosexualy and the legaly of same-sex marriage some parts of the world. Halford, who revealed he was gay nearly twenty years ago, said (see vio below): "I jt get so trated and I get angry that here we are 2017… I mean, growg up as a kid and sudnly realizg about my preferenc… Well, 's not really a preference — 's who you are.

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

So the jtic that are put agast gay people, much like the jtic agast people of lor, or people that have tremendo difficulti wh acceptg religns…"Halford add: "It's a crazy world, isn't ? And [ 1998] I was dog an terview wh MTV and talkg about mic and blah blah blah, and very off the cuff, I said, 'Speakg as a gay man metal…', blah blah blah. "The thg about gay people is that until we e out of the closet, we're always protectg other people: 'I n't do this, bee 's gonna hurt so-and-so, '" he ntued.

The gay, leather-lovg sger reveals his “totally ndid” memoir — “Confs: The Autobgraphy, ” out Tuday — that California ps vered up for his long-ago arrt for “public cency” at a Venice Beach rtroom. Stupid, and ashamed, but also angry — that, this late the century, gay men still had to live fear like this, ” ntu Halford, who publicly me out on MTV 1998 and rned wh the band 2003.

November 21, 2014In a brand new terview wh the Denver Wtword, JUDAS PRIEST bassist Ian Hill spoke about Rob Halford's cisn to reveal more than 15 years ago that the sger was homosexual. Durg a 1998 terview wh MTV, Halford addrsed the subject of his sexualy publicly for the first time, tellg the mic channel: "I thk that most people know that I've been a gay man all of my life, and that 's only been recent tim that 's an issue that I feel fortable to addrs, and an issue that has been wh me ever sce regnizg my own sexualy.

ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY

"Halford recently told The Prs Of Atlantic Cy that he expected metal fans to alienate him when he first spoke about his homosexualy. 'Do I step out and say I'm a gay guy?

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. 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.