Heavy Metal deity Rob Halford is affectionately known by millions of fans as The Metal God, whose band Judas Priest, one of the most influential and iconic metal acts of all time, open the second leg of their 2024 Invincible Shield World Tour in Montreal.
Montrealers have a longstanding love affair with Judas Priest, and are known to be one of the loudest audiences on the planet. “You guys go nuts!” says Halford, the out frontman who invented and codified metal’s signature leather man look. Emerging from Birmingham in 1969, the impact and influence of Judas Priest in their genre is enormous. After conquering the charts with their classic albums British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith, and such timeless hits as Breaking the Law, Living After Midnight and You Got Another Thing Comin, the band was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. Invincible Shield is the band’s 19th studio album. While legendary guitarist Glenn
Tipton stepped back from official touring duties in 2018 due to Parkinson’s disease – veteran Andy Sneap has stepped in as Glenn’s replacement on their current tour – Tipton continues to write and record as a crucial member of Judas Priest. “Thank you ever so much for asking about Glenn,” Halford tells me. “He’s a fighter!” So is Halford who struggled with the Rock and Roll closet for more than two decades until he famously came out on MTV in 1998. Halford has lived an out-and-proud heavy-metal life ever since. We recently sat down for a candid Q&A.
I’ve interviewed you many times over the past 25 years, but every other interview we’ve done was prior to Judas Priest’s induction into the Rock Hall. Now I can finally ask you what it was like to be inducted! How did you feel when you first got the news?
ROB HALFORD : It was great! It was a really profound moment. That was a great year for the band. Then, just when you think you’ve had it all, done it all and seen it all, here comes this diminutive figure on her high heels, click-clacking across the stage and she says, “Hi, Rob, do you know Jolene?”
I wanted to ask you about that because, of course, Dolly Parton was also inducted into the Rock Hall in 2022, and there you were alongside her singing Jolene. That was every diva-loving gay man’s dream come true!
ROB HALFORD : Again, it was so powerful and moving and emotional. First of all, you know, she knew my name! Then, second of all, there we were all lined up, all the talent was on the front of the stage to sing at the end of the show, and to ask just a couple of people to join in at the end was just, that was a big deal, particularly a metal artist, the heavy fucking metal maniac! So we did the song, and then that photo of me and Dolly closing in for a sweet little sweet moment was just sensational and went viral. Then a couple weeks later I got a personal note from Dolly via email: “Hey, Rob, it’s Dolly, thanks again. You probably know I’m doing this Rockstar album. Would you consider doing a song?”
You duet with Dolly on the track Bygones on her album Rockstar.
ROB HALFORD : Yeah, she didn’t have to ask me twice! So she sent me the song, and I did it here in the studio in Phoenix, and she was on the phone, and I was on the phone, and we put the song together in three hours.
You once told me the story of you and Freddie Mercury in an Athens bar in Greece in the early 1980s. You were both dealing with the Rock n Roll closet in your own ways. Freddie was holding court at the other end of the bar and you guys never got a chance to connect. You told me, “We were two ships passing in the night.” It’s such a different world today. In the years after you publicly came out on MTV in 1998, have other gay musicians asked you for counsel about coming out?
ROB HALFORD : 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. 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!
Did coming out save your life?
ROB HALFORD : Absolutely! It saved my life. My two important life changes were becoming clean and sober, and coming out.
When and how did you meet your life partner Thomas?
ROB HALFORD : 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!
You kick off the second leg of your Invincible Shield World Tour at the Bell Centre in Montreal on September 13. Montreal is a great metal city and Montrealers love Judas Priest.
ROB HALFORD : I can’t speak volumes enough about the metal community in Montreal. You guys go nuts! One of the loudest parts of the metal community to play for. It’s just complete bedlam in the best way possible. That’s the beautiful place we’re at in Priest now, the way our music has crossed generations. We can’t wait to come back.
How does it feel to be a living legend, an icon – because you are, Mr Halford!
ROB HALFORD : Thank you, I appreciate those words, they’re not lost on me. It’s powerful and I accept it gratefully and humbly because that’s where my level is at. Balancing harmony. Those words make me feel good. But it should also make you think about the responsibilities one has, even if you didn’t sign up for that. Use your responsibility in the best possible way you can, which is projecting the light, the love, and the good times.
INFOS | Judas Priest headlines the Bell Centre in Montreal on September 13.
Visit https://judaspriest.com
