The gay god of heavy metal speaks

Metalheads gay and straight got the chance to bow down before the Metal God in Toronto last weekend at the North by Northeast Music and Film Festival, and my friend, photographer/videographer Clint Gilders from Club Kingsnake, was there and shared his impressions and some great photos and video clips with us.

The Metal God is, of course, out gay heavy metal legend Rob Halford, lead singer of iconic metal band Judas Priest. Halford's homosexuality was an open secret in the music world for years, but in 1998 he made if official, coming out in an interview on MTV.

For those who don't follow the metal scene -- and that would include me, I'm more of an alternative/indie kind of gal -- Halford is credited as being the first artist to really bring metal out of the underground and into the mainstream. He was also the first leather-garbed, Harley-straddling metal star, and his image has gone on to be adopted by a generation of metal-god-wannabes.

Halford actually left Judas Priest for many years, working with his own bands and even doing vocal duties for a short time for Black Sabbath. He rejoined his old bandmates in 2003 to record the massively successful and critically acclaimed album Angel of Retribution. Judas Priest, with Halford at the helm, is about to hit the road in support of their new concept album, Nostradamus.

Clint says:

The Rob Halford celebrity interview on Saturday was simply amazing. Rob was very open and honest and discussed coming out, and the stress of the years leading up to it, his dedication to metal music, where he draws his inspiration, memories of the Sex Pistols, favourite authors, favourite actors, on his vocal style and the influence he's had on many metal vocalists, and Priest's new concept album Nostradamus. There's a photo of me at the front of the line for the Halford interview over at the NXNE site. The only people that were in line before me were some super-fans who weren't registered for the conference and paid $30.00 just to hear Rob speak.

Clint videotaped the interview and you can watch the whole thing here... Halford talks about how a lot of people are afraid of metal because they don't know about it, with some interesting implied parallels about how a lot of people feel about being gay. He also talks about meeting gay horror author/filmmaker Clive Barker ("He's off his head."), Sid Vicious ("Sid Vicious couldn't play a note. He had no idea about the bass, it wasn't even plugged in."), and of course, coming out and being gay ("A lot of celebrities are trapped, just trapped. That must be a terrible way to live").

Clips of the whole interview and more of Clint's comments are here, but here's a little bit of what he had to say: