Why the only openly gay heavy metal superstar, Judas Prit's Rob Halford, hid his sexualy

Contents:

• 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
• “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?’
• FORMER JUDAS PRIEST GUARIST K.K. DOWNG CLAIMS "WE ALWAYS KNEW ROB HALFORD WAS GAY"
• WHY THE ONLY OPENLY GAY HEAVY METAL SUPERSTAR, JUDAS PRIT'S ROB HALFORD, HID HIS SEXUALY
• JUDAS PRIEST'S IAN HILL: 'WE KNEW' ROB HALFORD WAS GAY BEFORE HE PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGED IT
• GAY JU PRIT: “WE DREAM OF A CHURCH THAT WILL ACCEPT .”

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

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

” 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. Judas Prit‘s Rob Halford has marked Pri month by reflectg on the moment he me out as gay on televisn.

ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY

“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.

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

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.

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

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. 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 )?

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

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?

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. And while the young man knew he was gay om childhood, th far, his only timate experienc were trmatic on.

But Confs n’t be rced to a llectn of salac gay enunters, e bg or romanticized rock’n’roll horror stori.

WHY THE ONLY OPENLY GAY HEAVY METAL SUPERSTAR, JUDAS PRIT'S ROB HALFORD, HID HIS SEXUALY

Yeah, pecially when we talk about the acceptance of my sexualy, which every gay person go through. And unls you’re a gay person, you n’t unrstand that, you n’t prehend .

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

Well, no ’s nothg to do wh the S&M world or other subcultur the gay world! But years later when you started g the Handkerchief Co on stage (a system ed gay culture the 70s), that was a ltle different, right? My trips to Ameri really opened my ey as far as what the gay world is about.

We had our own style of the UK, but at the time, the early 70s, you uld still be thrown jail for beg a gay man.

At one pot you said how you’d be on the b and read the Bob Damron gui — which highlighted gay-iendly bars across Ameri — and fantasize about gog to the plac, but you jt uldn’t do .

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

One of them is jt gog to a gay bar and seeg somebody and hangg out and havg a drk and a cuddle the rner, not jt go back and wam, bam, thank you man. 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.