I'm slowly making my way through an advanced copy of Judas Preist frontman Rob Halford's new autobiography, Confess, and boy does he ever. Halford is incredibly candid, and very funny, with his dry British wit, making the book an easy read. One of the more fascinating aspects of the book, is Rob talking about discovering his sexuality, and just how challenging it seemed to be gay back in the day (to say nothing of the challenges gay people face today). Halford is incredibly honest about his entire sexual journey, and one story that sticks out (among many intense revelations) is that he got arrested for cruising a public bathroom in Venice Beach before he ever came out of the closet.
It ended up that the cops who arrested him were Judas Priest fans so they didn't end up leaking his name to the press, which Halford joked to NME could have been his "George Michael" moment.
"The police did me a favor by keeping it out of the press because it would have been big news," Halford told NME. "I always refer to that, slightly tongue in cheek, as my George Michael moment. I was lucky, because the sad thing is it makes people who don't understand the gay community just go, 'Obviously, they're all just a bunch of perverts.' And that's horrible.
"I'd like to think for the most part if that incident had broken into the press, then a great proportion of my fans would have said, 'We'll support you and stand with you.' A few years later, when I came out on MTV, that was a proven fact because the feedback from around the world was positive — they just wanted me to continue being the singer for JUDAS PRIEST and get on with the job."
I highly recommend picking up a copy of Rob's new book, Confess, out September 29th. Order a copy here.
