Rob Halford has opened up about offering guidance to fellow LGBTQ+ musicians.
Over the last couple of decades, the Judas Priest frontman has become a role model to the queer community, after announcing his homosexuality back in 1998 during an appearance on MTV News, cementing himself as the first openly gay metal frontman.
In a new interview with Fugues, Halford is questioned on whether he shares advice to musicians who are also wanting to "come out" and be open about their sexuality.
In response, he answers: "Yes, that has happened, but I won't name names because everyone comes out when it's their time. As we all know, set yourself free. It's such a difficult thing for us to do, even now in 2024 because we still have this ongoing challenge of hate and bigotry and intolerance and divisiveness.
"You think it would be a lot easier, but it's not. The struggle is still very real for young people, and that's where I hope any conversations I have with others do some good."
He continues, "You know, I read a story not long ago about a guy in his 90s who came out just before he took his dying breath. Glory hallelujah! It's never too late to set yourself free because, as we know, once you're out, the attacks float away. I'm fucking here. I'm queer. Get fucking used to it."
Elsewhere, Halford recalls the story of meeting his partner, Thomas. He says: "Let me just say that in my autobiography, Confess, I talk about how a man in uniform still makes my little gay-old-man heart flutter. So that was part of the connection.
"I didn't find out until later that Thomas is a highly decorated veteran. He never talked about that side of his life, things that he's done and seen in certain parts of the world. You wait for it to come to the table, you know. But it was a beautiful way that we met, before the Internet and before texting and dating sites and all this kind of stuff. We're the old gays. We've been together since 1995. For our 30th anniversary, I'll buy him a Twinkie."
In an interview with Metal Hammer in the early 2000s, Halford reflected on the experience of coming out, as well as the pressure that came with it.
“I think that kind of experience is something that every gay guy goes through – feeling isolated and feeling that you’re the only person in the world who has those kind of feelings", he said.
"In those days, you didn’t talk about those kind of things. It wasn’t talked about in the media, in soaps or on TV. And, I mean, for me it wasn’t until my late 20s that I felt I was actually part of something bigger y’know?”.
In 2022, the musician delivered an inspirational speech at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, declaring how the metal community's acceptance of his own sexuality is evidence to the genre's all-welcoming attitude to different kinds of people.
"I'm the gay guy in the band," he began. "You see, that is what heavy metal is all about. We call ourselves the heavy metal community which is all-inclusive, no matter what your sexual identity is, what you look like, the colour of your skin, the faith that you believe or don't believe in. Everybody's welcome."
