Judas Prit's Rob Halford on beg metal’s first gay in | Lour

Contents:

• WHY THE ONLY OPENLY GAY HEAVY METAL SUPERSTAR, JUDAS PRIT'S ROB HALFORD, HID HIS SEXUALY
• “IN THOSE DAYS, YOU DIDN’T TALK ABOUT THOSE KD OF THGS”. ROB HALFORD'S REACTN TO BEG METAL’S FIRST GAY IN
• FORMER JUDAS PRIEST GUARIST K.K. DOWNG CLAIMS "WE ALWAYS KNEW ROB HALFORD WAS GAY"
• ROB HALFORD ‘CAME OUT’ 20 YEARS BEFORE HE REALIZEDMART KIELTYMART KIELTYPUBLISHED: DECEMBER 3, 2019ETHAN MILLER, GETTY IMAGSHARETWEETROB HALFORD SAID HE WENT PUBLIC ABOUT BEG GAY NEARLY 20 YEARS BEFORE HE MEANT TO, AND HE DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE AT THE TIME.THE JUDAS PRIT SGER ME OUT DURG A 1998 TERVIEW, BUT THAT WAS TWO S AFTER HE’D WRTEN PERSONAL LYRICS FOR THE BAND’S 1977 SONG “RAW DEAL,” WHICH APPEARS ON S THIRD ALBUM, S AFTER S.“WHEN I WROTE THE LYRICS TO THAT SONG, I’M SURE THERE WASN’T AN AGENDA ON MY PART -- JT FELT LIKE A VERY NATURAL THG TO DO,” HALFORD TOLD 96.7 KCAL ROCKS A RECENT TERVIEW. “IT TALKS ABOUT FIRE ISLAND, WHICH IS THE BIG GAY HANGOUT NEW YORK. AND I TALK ABOUT THE GUYS THE BAR AND EVERYTHG.”HE SAID HE BELIEVED THE WORDS WERE “JT TOO MUCH” BEFORE SHOWG THEM TO HIS LLEAGU. “BUT THE GUYS WERE LIKE, 'THIS IS GREAT. THE WORDS F WH THE MOOD AND THE ATMOSPHERE WH THE SONG.’ ... BUT YOU LISTEN TO THAT SONG, REALLY IS ALMOST LIKE A G-OUT EXPERIENCE FOR ME. AND NEVER REALLY REGISTERED. IT'S ONLY BEEN RECENT YEARS THAT PEOPLE HAVE PICKED UP ON THAT SONG.”LISTEN TO JUDAS PRIT'S ‘RAW DEAL’HALFORD MA A PARISON BETWEEN THE “GOOD OVERG EVIL” THEME OF MOST OF JUDAS PRIT’S LYRICS AND THE ACT OF G OUT. “I URGE PEOPLE, LGBTQ, ANY OF THAT ARE STILL TRYG TO FD THAT MOMENT TO BREAK DOWN THE DOOR … STEP FORWARD AND SAY, 'THIS IS WHO I AM AND I’M PROUD OF WHO I AM. I'M NOT GOG TO BE TIMIDATED. I'M NOT GOG TO LIVE FEAR. I'M NOT GOG TO PUT EVERYBODY ELSE BEFORE ME,'" HE SAID."I THK THAT ONE OF THE MOST BETIFUL THGS YOU N DO LIFE IS TO SHARE YOUR LIFE AND GIVE AS MUCH AS YOU POSSIBLY N. YOU N'T REALLY DO THAT IF YOU'RE KD OF LOCKG YOURSELF AWAY THIS THG WE LL THE CLOSET.”HE ARGUED THAT TWO POSIV ME OUT OF TAKG THE STEP: “FIRST OF ALL, YOU BEE EXTREMELY POWERFUL BEE YOU'RE NTROL. … AND THEN YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIE ANYMORE. YOU DON'T HAVE TO HI. YOU TAKE AWAY THE NUENDO, THE WHISPERG. IT'S ALL GONE. IT FLOATS AWAY. I TELL YOU, 'S THE BT THG YOU N DO FOR YOURSELF AND YOU. YOU LIVE A MUCH BETTER LIFE AFTER YOU'VE STEPPED FORWARD AND PROCLAIMED WHO YOU ARE.” THE BT SONG FROM EVERY JUDAS PRIT ALBUM

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.

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.

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

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. 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.

FORMER JUDAS PRIEST GUARIST K.K. DOWNG CLAIMS "WE ALWAYS KNEW ROB HALFORD WAS GAY"

Last year, after the release of his book Confs, the sger opened up to PEOPLE about his experience as the gay ontman of the metal band. The Judas Prit ontman helped to map out the blueprt of the sound and look of metal throughout the 70s and 80s, and a later he beme the first openly gay metal ontman. “I thk that kd of experience is somethg that every gay guy go through – feelg isolated and feelg that you’re the only person the world who has those kd of feelgs.

”Halford is a trailblazer that regard, and told Metal Hammer that he’s glad he helped to break assumptns about gay people workg metal. “There’s still a very bigoted attu towards homosexualy. ”Halford don’t see himself as a gay in, though – to him, he’s a heavy metal sger a band.

” He fds amg that he has no relatnship wh the gay media, he stated, opg that they n’t stggle to nnect wh the world of heavy metal.

ROB HALFORD ‘CAME OUT’ 20 YEARS BEFORE HE REALIZEDMART KIELTYMART KIELTYPUBLISHED: DECEMBER 3, 2019ETHAN MILLER, GETTY IMAGSHARETWEETROB HALFORD SAID HE WENT PUBLIC ABOUT BEG GAY NEARLY 20 YEARS BEFORE HE MEANT TO, AND HE DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE AT THE TIME.THE JUDAS PRIT SGER ME OUT DURG A 1998 TERVIEW, BUT THAT WAS TWO S AFTER HE’D WRTEN PERSONAL LYRICS FOR THE BAND’S 1977 SONG “RAW DEAL,” WHICH APPEARS ON S THIRD ALBUM, S AFTER S.“WHEN I WROTE THE LYRICS TO THAT SONG, I’M SURE THERE WASN’T AN AGENDA ON MY PART -- JT FELT LIKE A VERY NATURAL THG TO DO,” HALFORD TOLD 96.7 KCAL ROCKS A RECENT TERVIEW. “IT TALKS ABOUT FIRE ISLAND, WHICH IS THE BIG GAY HANGOUT NEW YORK. AND I TALK ABOUT THE GUYS THE BAR AND EVERYTHG.”HE SAID HE BELIEVED THE WORDS WERE “JT TOO MUCH” BEFORE SHOWG THEM TO HIS LLEAGU. “BUT THE GUYS WERE LIKE, 'THIS IS GREAT. THE WORDS F WH THE MOOD AND THE ATMOSPHERE WH THE SONG.’ ... BUT YOU LISTEN TO THAT SONG, REALLY IS ALMOST LIKE A G-OUT EXPERIENCE FOR ME. AND NEVER REALLY REGISTERED. IT'S ONLY BEEN RECENT YEARS THAT PEOPLE HAVE PICKED UP ON THAT SONG.”LISTEN TO JUDAS PRIT'S ‘RAW DEAL’HALFORD MA A PARISON BETWEEN THE “GOOD OVERG EVIL” THEME OF MOST OF JUDAS PRIT’S LYRICS AND THE ACT OF G OUT. “I URGE PEOPLE, LGBTQ, ANY OF THAT ARE STILL TRYG TO FD THAT MOMENT TO BREAK DOWN THE DOOR … STEP FORWARD AND SAY, 'THIS IS WHO I AM AND I’M PROUD OF WHO I AM. I'M NOT GOG TO BE TIMIDATED. I'M NOT GOG TO LIVE FEAR. I'M NOT GOG TO PUT EVERYBODY ELSE BEFORE ME,'" HE SAID."I THK THAT ONE OF THE MOST BETIFUL THGS YOU N DO LIFE IS TO SHARE YOUR LIFE AND GIVE AS MUCH AS YOU POSSIBLY N. YOU N'T REALLY DO THAT IF YOU'RE KD OF LOCKG YOURSELF AWAY THIS THG WE LL THE CLOSET.”HE ARGUED THAT TWO POSIV ME OUT OF TAKG THE STEP: “FIRST OF ALL, YOU BEE EXTREMELY POWERFUL BEE YOU'RE NTROL. … AND THEN YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIE ANYMORE. YOU DON'T HAVE TO HI. YOU TAKE AWAY THE NUENDO, THE WHISPERG. IT'S ALL GONE. IT FLOATS AWAY. I TELL YOU, 'S THE BT THG YOU N DO FOR YOURSELF AND YOU. YOU LIVE A MUCH BETTER LIFE AFTER YOU'VE STEPPED FORWARD AND PROCLAIMED WHO YOU ARE.” THE BT SONG FROM EVERY JUDAS PRIT ALBUM

“I’ve never been approached by any of those kd of publitns bee I thk heavy metal is still viewed by the wir media as still beg this very macho, male environment, ” he said, “and the gay media still treats wh some tachment. "I'm the gay guy the band, " he began. I never thought Judas Prit songs had much gay ntent even after I learned Rob Halford was gay.