Interview: Rob Halford Dissects Hidg Inty as a Gay Sger

Contents:

• ROB HALFORD LOOKS BACK ON G OUT AS GAY ON MTV: “IT’S A GLOR MOMENT”
• 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 PRIEST'S ROB HALFORD ON HIS LIFE AS GAY MAN: 'IN SOME PARTS OF THE WORLD, PEOPLE LIKE ME GET THROWN OFF BUILDGS'
• ROB HALFORD DISSECTS HIDG INTY AS A GAY MAN + MORE WHILE DISCSG NEW BOOK ‘CONFS
• 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 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.

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.

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

“Mentally, on top of beg the gay man the closet, I had all the extra piec piled onto my life at that time. 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.

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. 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 ?

ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY

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.

Now, the Metal God's tobgraphy, Confs, is out, offerg an unprecented look at the sger's life om childhood through half a century of ontg one of metal's biggt and most fluential bands — all while stgglg to unrstand his inty as a gay man lookg for te and hont will eagerly vour all the anecdot about Judas Prit's history the stud and on the road, but what is the most grippg about Confs is Halford's hont analyzatn of tryg to unrstand his sexual inty, which he heavily reprsed fear of stroyg the band's reer. As a teenager, Halford endured sexual abe by elrs his muny, one man beg a iend of his father, as well as by lears at after school stanc of abe greatly obscured a young Halford's perceptn of what meant to be a member of the gay muny.

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

What was begdggly accepted was that his sexual inty mt rema hidn om the public while, lyrilly, the Metal God led certa Prit songs wh referenc to gay culture and sexual a seri of unfulfillg relatnships, Halford eventually met his current partner, Thomas, and fally found the genue relatnship he had spent his entire life lookg 's jt a sliver of what else is chronicled wh the pag of Confs and we dove eper to the them wh Rob Halford, who spoke wh Loudwire over the phone om his home Phoenix, Arizona. Repeatedly Confs, you mentn the need to stay the closet as to not sk Judas Prit’s reer if the world were to fd out the band was onted by a gay man.

It was a g out song, and I’m sure gay followers at the time probably acknowledged that, but as far as the prs and everywhere else was valued, as should be, as a really potent metal Prit, "Raw Deal"Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s pecially, retrospectively appears that you were nstantly sendg signals to clue fans to your inty as a gay man. Everythg was beg masked by booze and dgs, but I got through ’s some great songs on the Turbo album, but ’s not one of my proust moments as a Prit, "Locked In" Mic VioDo you thk that perhaps more fans realized your inty as a gay man, but felt aaid to even broach the subject wh even jt iends bee uld lead to accatns and ridicule?

It still happens now — “No homo, bro. 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?

ROB HALFORD DISSECTS HIDG INTY AS A GAY MAN + MORE WHILE DISCSG NEW BOOK ‘CONFS

” 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. 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.

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

"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? 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.