Judas Priest frontman and overall heavy metal legend Rob Halford came out as gay in 1998, telling The Advocate in that same year "It's a wonderful moment when you walk out of the closet. Now I've done that and I've freed myself." Fast forward to 2017, and Halford is a little disappointed that there's still plenty of non-acceptance for the gay community out there.
In an interview with FOX Sports 910 Phoenix, Halford says America and his home country of England still have a little ways to go with acceptance, though they're light years ahead of other parts of the world. He's also a little confused as to why people give a shit who loves who in 2017.
"I just get so frustrated and I get angry that here we are in 2017… I mean, growing up as a kid and suddenly realizing about my preferences… Well, it's not really a preference — it's who you are. You don't make a choice. I am who I am. And because of the society that I grew up in, and to a still great extent today, we have this tremendous pushback in equality.
"I always kind of felt, as I was going through my teen years and my twenties and thirties, things would be better, but they're not. There's still a long way to go in America, and in my home country. And in some parts of the world, people like me get thrown off buildings, people like me get hung, just because of who we are. So the injustices that are put against gay people, much like the injustices against people of color, or people that have tremendous difficulties with accepting religions…"
"It's a crazy world, isn't it? You'd think that by now we'd have just figured things out and live and let live and love each other and just accept each other for who we are. Life is short."
Check out the full interview below.
We interviewed Rob a few years ago, and asked if anybody had every approached him in the metal scene thanking him for being a gay icon. At the time, he said nobody had ever done so:
