Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford has revealed a bunch of anecdotes ahead of the release of his forthcoming autobiography Confess, including the time he discussed heavy metal with Queen Elizabeth II.
Speaking to the Telegraph UK, Halford – a proud royalist since the Queen visited his hometown of Walsall in 1957 – was invited to a 2005 meeting with the royal at Buckingham Palace, where he apparently broke royal protocol by reaching out for a handshake.
The Queen then said: “Heavy metal… Why does it have to be so loud?”
Not quite expecting such a question from the reigning monarch, Halford said he replied: “It’s so we can bang our heads, Your Majesty.”
Fifteen years on, and Halford said he has had a lot of time to reflect on a more informed answer for Lizzie, saying he’d now reply:
“Maybe it needed to be that loud so you could hear it above the steam hammers, and the welders, and the coal mining, and the heavy industry when we were growing up.”
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The Judas Priest rocker also discussed his internal battle with his sexuality in the autobiography, detailing how he thought if he came out as gay, fans would no longer support the band, effectively ending their musical career.
“As Priest began to get bigger, and our tracks got more airplay, the make-up of our crowds was beginning to change. The rabid, headbanging blokes that were our core following were as loyal as ever, but we also started to get more women followers… and our first groupies,” Halford described in the book.
“None of our fans knew that I was gay at this point, of course. If any misguided girls made a play for me, I could politely brush them off. But if I wanted some action on the road – and I really, really did – how the hell was I supposed to go about it?”
He continued, “For straight blokes, the ritual was easy. They could invite a girl to come backstage … I couldn’t do any of that.”
“If I fancied a guy in the crowd, how did I go about it? What were the chances of him being gay (or, if he was, of admitting it)? What if I got it wrong, made a misjudged pass and got a smack in the mouth? And, of course, the overriding fear that was to limit my existence for decades: What if it got out that I was gay, fans didn’t want anything to do with a band fronted by a queer, and it killed Judas Priest stone dead?”
“Priest was the most important thing in my life, and even if I were willing to sacrifice it for my sexuality – which I wasn’t – I simply couldn’t do it to Ken, or Glenn, or Ian. It wouldn’t be fair on them.”
“It was my problem, not theirs.”
Rob Halford will release his tell-all autobiography, Confess, via Hachette Books on Tuesday, September 29th.
Check out ‘Breaking The Law’ by Judas Priest:
