Judas Prit's Gay Sger Rob Halford On Playg Rsia: 'I Am The Rabow Flag Of Metal' | HuffPost News

Contents:

• ‘IT IS A GREAT TO BE GAY,’ JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD SAYS
• JUDAS PRIT ALWAYS KNEW ROB HALFORD WAS GAY, EX-MEMBER SPILLS
• 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 PRIT'S GAY SGER ROB HALFORD ON PLAYG RSIA: 'I AM THE RABOW FLAG OF METAL'
• JUDAS PRIEST'S IAN HILL: 'WE KNEW' ROB HALFORD WAS GAY BEFORE HE PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGED IT
• GAY LEAD SGER OF JUDAS PRIT RELEAS AUTOBGRAPHY, ‘CONFS’
• ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY

‘IT IS A GREAT TO BE GAY,’ JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD SAYS

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. 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. 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.’ And then I heard the producer’s clipboard bounce on the floor. It was one of those gay sharp tak, ‘Oh my God, he’s e out.’.

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

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.’ It’s jt a big, big al.

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

“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.”. In an terview wh, Judas Prit‘s inic ontman Rob Halford talked about his sexual orientatn and clarified whether beg gay was somethg that uld be chosen or changed.

As you may know, the legendary volist Rob Halford has been openly and proudly gay sce the very first time he announced his homosexualy on the MTV show 1998. Halford has been a strong advote of gay rights and often shows his support for the e on social media. Recently, Rob Halford joed an terview wh and rpond to a mon prejudice agast homosexual people suggtg they uld actually choose or change their sexual orientatn.

JUDAS PRIT'S GAY SGER ROB HALFORD ON PLAYG RSIA: 'I AM THE RABOW FLAG OF METAL'

In his reply to the qutn askg what he was thkg about those people who claimed that beg gay was a choice and not somethg that you were born wh, Halford said they were pletely wrong about . Furthermore, Rob talked about how great was to be gay and claimed once aga was somethg he born wh, fely not a choice by statg:. “It’s great to be gay.

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

It’s wonrful to be gay bee there are so many nflictg views about this particular thg that we have today. 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? 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. 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.

GAY LEAD SGER OF JUDAS PRIT RELEAS AUTOBGRAPHY, ‘CONFS’

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. Judas Prit lead sger Rob Halford, who is set for a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ductn, is openly gay and is a relatnship wh an ex-Mare named Thomas Pence.

ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY

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.