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 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

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.

ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY

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.

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

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

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