ROB HALFORD Discusses JUDAS PRIEST Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Snub In New Interview
July 22, 2010, 14 years ago
Richard Burnett at Hour.ca recently caught up with JUDAS PRIEST / HALFORD frontman Rob Halford. An excerpt from the story is available below:
Three Dollar Bill
I have long believed the real reason Judas Priest have yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is because Priest frontman Rob Halford is still one of the rare openly gay superstars in all of showbiz.
I mean, BLACK SABBATH were inducted in 2006 and METALLICA in 2009. But Judas Priest, hailed as the Godfathers of Heavy Metal? And Halford, who introduced heavy metal's de rigueur leather-man look?
Not even a thank you. And, frankly, it pisses me off.
So last week I told Halford I think the Rock Hall snub has everything to do with his being openly gay.
"I don't know, let's have a think: Who in there is gay?" Halford asks rhetorically. "It's a good question. I consider myself a lower-case gay, not screaming like my good friend [porn director and drag queen] Chi Chi LaRue. I love all my friends in the community and if the moment came [for being inducted into the Rock Hall], it would be a tremendous moment not just for the band and our fans, but for the whole LGBT community."Halford, like his contemporary Freddie Mercury of QUEEN, rose to showbiz fame in the homophobic 1970s when, to quote former Village Voice writer Peter Braunstein, "the real animosity between rock and disco lay in the position of the straight white male. In the rock world, he was the undisputed top, while in disco, he was subject to a radical decentering."
Thus, the "disco sucks" movement.
So for Mercury and Halford, publicly coming out was not a viable option.
Go to this location for the complete story.
