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:

• 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 PRIT ALWAYS KNEW ROB HALFORD WAS GAY, EX-MEMBER SPILLS
• ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY
• JUDAS PRIEST'S IAN HILL: 'WE KNEW' ROB HALFORD WAS GAY BEFORE HE PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGED IT
• “IN THOSE DAYS, YOU DIDN’T TALK ABOUT THOSE KD OF THGS”. ROB HALFORD'S REACTN TO BEG METAL’S FIRST GAY IN
• WHEN JUDAS PRIT’S ROB HALFORD ME OUT AS GAY, THE METAL CROWD SAID: ‘YOU THK WE DIDN’T KNOW?’
• GAY JU PRIT: “WE DREAM OF A CHURCH THAT WILL ACCEPT .”
• JUDAS PRIEST'S ROB HALFORD ON HIS LIFE AS GAY MAN: 'IN SOME PARTS OF THE WORLD, PEOPLE LIKE ME GET THROWN OFF BUILDGS'

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.

“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.

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

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 RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY

” 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. 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.

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

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

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. 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?

WHEN JUDAS PRIT’S ROB HALFORD ME OUT AS GAY, THE METAL CROWD SAID: ‘YOU THK WE DIDN’T KNOW?’

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.

GAY JU PRIT: “WE DREAM OF A CHURCH THAT WILL ACCEPT .”

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. 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. In a brand new terview wh the Colorado Sprgs Inpennt, JUDAS PRIEST sger Rob Halford spoke about the discrimatn that the LGBTQ muny still fac spe the broad social acceptance of homosexualy and the legaly of same-sex marriage some parts of the world.

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

The Brish-born sger, who revealed he was gay more than 20 years ago, ma his ments rponse to a qutn about U. Print Donald Tmp banng transgenr people om servg the ary, and the leadg ndidate to succeed Thera May as Brish prime mister, Boris Johnson, parg gay marriage to if he thks we're takg one step forward and two steps back when to LGBTQ issu, Halford said: "The world is always evolvg. 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. 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.