Interview: Rob Halford Dissects Hidg Inty as a Gay Sger

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
• HOW GAY ARE THE JUDAS PRIT LYRICS?
• JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY
• JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY
• JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY
• JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY
• JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY
• JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY
• JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY
• JUDAS PRIEST'S ROB HALFORD REVEALS HE GOT ARRTED FOR CISG BEFORE COMG 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
• ROB HALFORD DISSECTS HIDG INTY AS A GAY MAN + MORE WHILE DISCSG NEW BOOK ‘CONFS
• ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY

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.

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

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

“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. 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.

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

"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 )?

HOW GAY ARE THE JUDAS PRIT LYRICS?

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? 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.

JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY

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.

JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY

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. In honor of Pri Month, Judas Prit's Rob Halford has scribed the moment he me out as gay 1998, and how he no longer felt prsure once everyone volist was dog an terview wh MTV New York when he sually me out as gay — wasn't a premedated thought that he had to mentn . It was one of those gay sharp tak, ‘Oh my god, he’s e out.

"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, " he explaed.

JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY

"“Mentally, on top of beg the gay man the closet, I had all the extra piec piled onto my life at that time, " he said. How gay are the Judas Prit lyrics? Judas Prit sger Rob Halford felt an "enormo feelg of eedom" when he me out as gay on MTV heavy metal legend adms he never planned to announce to the world that he was homosexual when he sually referred to himself as a "gay man" durg the Q&A and he is still unsure whether he would have publicly e out if he had cid to make a more a more grandse an terview wh Apple Mic’s Hattie Colls, he said: "It was one of those thgs where I’m at MTV New York, I’m talkg about a project that I was workg on lled 'Two', wh myself and John 5, the amazg guar player.

JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY

And I said somethg to the effect of, ‘Well, speakg as a gay man, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME 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. One of the more fascatg aspects of the book, is Rob talkg about disverg his sexualy, and jt how challengg seemed to be gay back the day (to say nothg of the challeng gay people face today).

I was lucky, bee the sad thg is mak people who don't unrstand the gay muny jt go, 'Obvly, they're all jt a bunch of perverts.

JUDAS PRIT SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY

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? ” 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 SGER ROB HALFORD FELT EE AFTER HE ME OUT AS GAY

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.

“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.

JUDAS PRIEST'S ROB HALFORD REVEALS HE GOT ARRTED FOR CISG BEFORE COMG OUT AS GAY

Now, the Metal God's tobgraphy, Confs, is out, offerg an unprecented look at the sger's life om childhood through half a century of ontg one of metal's biggt and most fluential bands — all while stgglg to unrstand his inty as a gay man lookg for te and hont will eagerly vour all the anecdot about Judas Prit's history the stud and on the road, but what is the most grippg about Confs is Halford's hont analyzatn of tryg to unrstand his sexual inty, which he heavily reprsed fear of stroyg the band's reer. As a teenager, Halford endured sexual abe by elrs his muny, one man beg a iend of his father, as well as by lears at after school stanc of abe greatly obscured a young Halford's perceptn of what meant to be a member of the gay muny. What was begdggly accepted was that his sexual inty mt rema hidn om the public while, lyrilly, the Metal God led certa Prit songs wh referenc to gay culture and sexual a seri of unfulfillg relatnships, Halford eventually met his current partner, Thomas, and fally found the genue relatnship he had spent his entire life lookg 's jt a sliver of what else is chronicled wh the pag of Confs and we dove eper to the them wh Rob Halford, who spoke wh Loudwire over the phone om his home Phoenix, Arizona.

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

Repeatedly Confs, you mentn the need to stay the closet as to not sk Judas Prit’s reer if the world were to fd out the band was onted by a gay man.

It was a g out song, and I’m sure gay followers at the time probably acknowledged that, but as far as the prs and everywhere else was valued, as should be, as a really potent metal Prit, "Raw Deal"Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s pecially, retrospectively appears that you were nstantly sendg signals to clue fans to your inty as a gay man. Everythg was beg masked by booze and dgs, but I got through ’s some great songs on the Turbo album, but ’s not one of my proust moments as a Prit, "Locked In" Mic VioDo you thk that perhaps more fans realized your inty as a gay man, but felt aaid to even broach the subject wh even jt iends bee uld lead to accatns and ridicule?

ROB HALFORD DISSECTS HIDG INTY AS A GAY MAN + MORE WHILE DISCSG NEW BOOK ‘CONFS

It still happens now — “No homo, bro. Pri month is full force and, keepg wh that, the god-daddy of gay metalheads Rob Halford has asserted — somewhat jokgly, we thk —  a new terview wh the Edmonton Journal that "a straight man n't do my job.

ROB HALFORD RELLS WHEN HE CAME OUT AS GAY

Admtg he was ncerned wh losg fans at the time, the Metal God rells beg "surround by homophobia" and adms that such attus are still an issue today, particularly untri where homosexualy is banned, preventg Prit om visg to perform.

"I disvered when I did e out that I was this trap gay people fd themselv livg that you're livg your life for everyone else, but not yourself, " he explas. " He then pots to Freddie Mercury and the band Queen to unrle his assertn: "If Freddie hadn't have been gay, Queen would've been a totally different band.