Judas Priest’s Rob Halford Offers Advice for Closeted Gay Metalheads
Judas Priest singer Rob Halford isn’t just the most famous gay man in metal — he’s a trailblazer. Halford came out of the closet at a time when there were absolutely no guarantees that the metal community would accept a gay man. And I’m willing to bet his example has lead plenty of fans to feel comfortable coming out, too.
So it makes sense that Rolling Stone recently asked Halford if he had advice “for metalheads who feel like they’re stuck in a very straight culture but want to come out.” To which The Metal God replied:
“Well, you don’t have to feel as alone as I did. At your fingertips are all of these resources, places you can go to help steer you through making that decision. It is up to you to decide. I have friends that are still deeply closeted of their own choice. That’s just the way it works for them.
“Gay metalheads, man, just come and join us and just get out and just have a blast. Have a good time with your life and don’t be afraid. It’s just fear more than anything else: fear of rejection, fear of being kicked out of the house by your family. It’s just unbelievable how there are always cruel aspects within a family that you didn’t know. But please don’t let that stop you. It’s your life. Claim it. It belongs to you.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Halford discussed what he learned coming out as gay metalhead in 1998:
“I learned that you’ve got to let yourself out of the cage and you can’t live your life for other people. To come out into what was at the time, and still is to a certain extent, a very alpha-male–dominated experience — and that’s no disrespect to the great female metalheads — it brought me a lot of peace and helped me in my work more than anything else. If you’re still in the closet, you can’t really focus on life and what you’re here to do in life when you’ve got that shadow hanging over your head. Black it out, smash it down, burn it, tear it apart. You’re entitled to live your life as a human on this planet on your own terms.”
You can read the entire interview here. Halford’s autobiography, Confess, comes out September 29, and presumably contain much more about his experience as a gay metalhead.
[via Metal Injection]
