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

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”
• 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

Songfacts®:Rob Halford didn't announce he was gay until 1998, but he ma ltle effort to hi . In "Raw Deal" - a song about a trip to a gay bar - he is sentially g out, but nobody seemed to a 2000 terview, he explaed: "'Raw Deal' was a very open song for me. In his 2020 memoir Confs, Rob Halford wrote: "'Raw Deal' was a g-out song, a vent of my angst as a gay man the closet.

"I ma the spike about 9 o'clock on a SaturdayAll ey h me as I walked to the barThe spikey leather guys were fool' wh the nim dusA uple rds played rough stuff, New York, Fire IslandThe hamlet of Fire Island P on New York's Fire Island has been a notor gay hang out for many s - the Village People even released a song about 1977. 7 KCAL Rocks!, Halford relled that he was ncerned he was gog too far wh his referenc to gay guys a Fire Island bar. 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.

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

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.

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

Halford me out as a homosexual durg an MTV terview 1998 and has long sce been an outspoken advote for gay rights. It talks about Fire Island, which is the big gay hangout New York. 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.