As part of its 2020 Pride Issue, Billboard is spotlighting the experiences of artists and executives working in genres that are not always included in conversations about Pride in the music industry. Here, iconic metal screamer of Rob Halford Judas Priest gives some insight into being closeted in the '70s and '80s and coming out on MTV in the '90s.

"Obviously, there have been gay metalheads since metal was invented, but [back in the 1970s and ’80s] we were invisible," says Halford. "After a Priest show, a lot of us went back to working at the Ford plant or a Walgreens or working as a schoolteacher, but we were gay. We had to hide, basically.

"There was a time when disco music was huge, and for a lot of gay people and minorities, that was our music. We embraced it and danced to it, and we expressed ourselves with joy. But then there was a rock DJ who had [Disco Demolition Night in 1979 in Chicago] where you went to a stadium and burned disco music. The vast majority of the people who burned that music were rockers and metalheads, and I remember that was really upsetting. It was all wrapped up in the psychosis of "disco music is for gays, disco music is for black people." It was a very xenophobic expression, with gay people included in the whole mix of things.

"[When I came out publicly in 1998 on MTV], I didn't wake up in the hotel that day in New York and think, "I'm gonna come out." I was there to talk about the 2wo band [Halford's project with guitarist John Lowery, whose sole album was produced by Trent Reznor] and I just happened to make that comment because I felt very comfortable at the studio and I knew the interview people. It was just maybe something psychologically triggered in me and I didn't really understand the repercussions or ramifications of coming out that way until many days later. I count my blessings there wasn't social media. I did receive some very moving letters: "Because of you, I was able to tell my mom and dad." And that hits you in the heart. It was tremendously powerful, cathartic and uplifting. All the innuendo falls away, it vanishes into thin air."

Read more at Billboard.com.

Rob Halford's warts and all autobiography, Confess, will be released on September 29 via Hachette Books. Amazon pre-orders available now for North America and the UK.

A description of the book follows...

 Most priests take confessions. This one is giving his.

Rob Halford, front man of global iconic metal band Judas Priest, is a true 'Metal God'. Raised in Britain's hard-working heavy industrial heartland he and his music were forged in the Black Country. Confess, his full autobiography, is an unforgettable rock 'n' roll story - a journey from a Walsall council estate to musical fame via alcoholism, addiction, police cells, ill-starred sexual trysts and bleak personal tragedy, through to rehab, coming out, redemption... and finding love.

Now, he is telling his gospel truth.

Told with Halford's trademark self-deprecating, deadpan Black Country humour, Confess is the story of an extraordinary five decades in the music industry. It is also the tale of unlikely encounters with everybody from Superman to Andy Warhol, Madonna, Jack Nicholson and the Queen. More than anything else, it's a celebration of the fire and power of heavy metal.

Rob Halford has decided to Confess. Because it's good for the soul.