JUDAS PRIEST's IAN HILL: 'We Knew' ROB HALFORD Was Gay Before He Publicly Acknowledged It

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”
• 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
• JUDAS PRIT ALWAYS KNEW ROB HALFORD WAS GAY, EX-MEMBER SPILLS
• “IN THOSE DAYS, YOU DIDN’T TALK ABOUT THOSE KD OF THGS”. ROB HALFORD'S REACTN TO BEG METAL’S FIRST GAY IN

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.

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. 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.

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. 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?

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

” 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. 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 ?

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.

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

"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.

Around that time, he also me out as gay, which uld have been a risky move sce metal was still led by machismo. Of urse, me beg the gay metalhead fashnista, I uldn’t wa to really extrapolate on that and take to all those glor plac wh the help of my ma guy, [clothg signer] Ray Brown, who’s been wh Prit forever makg the credible works of art. You publicly me out as gay 1998.

There are all different typ of gay people, as there are all different kd of straight people the way that we show ourselv off, how we speak, how we drs. I thk that’s the betiful kaleidospe of life the way manifts self, regardls of whether you’re gay, straight, bi, black, whe, Asian, Lato.

“IN THOSE DAYS, YOU DIDN’T TALK ABOUT THOSE KD OF THGS”. ROB HALFORD'S REACTN TO BEG METAL’S FIRST GAY IN

And so, that’s another way that we exprs ourselv the gay muny. Gay metalheads, man, jt e and jo and jt get out and jt have a blast. 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. "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? 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.