Judas Priest's vocalist talks about being gay in the metal scene
Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford praised Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert, members of the band Cynic, for speaking openly about their homosexuality. Halford commented on sexual orientation in the context of metal: "For someone who plays the style of metal that they play to do what they did is very valuable."
The vocalist, who came out as gay in 1998, said that the more people who have the courage to speak about it publicly, the better for the cause: “Metalheads accept each other because we’ve endured a lot together, people don’t like us, they don’t like our music, they don’t like the way we dress. So for two guys to open up publicly like that, it’s brilliant. It sucks having to worry about these things in 2014, doesn’t it?”
In the interview, Halford joked about being angry when he heard about the Cynic members' statement: "I told someone, 'Did you see that? I'm the only gay guy in the parade, I can't admit that!'"