A few weeks back guitarist Paul Masvidal and drummer Sean Reinert of Cynic spoke about being gay publicly for the first time and chronicled what it has been like to be homosexual in the metal scene. So who better to congratulate the band on coming out publicly as gay than Judas Priest's vocalist Rob Halford, the most prominent openly gay man in the metal scene?
Halford sat down with Terrorizer magazine and gave a genuinely heartfelt speech and congratulatory statement to the two musicians, saying what they did is "a fucking great thing to do." Halford even touches on the topic of homophobia in metal, though he does follow up that statement with how accepting and generally open-minded he feels metal heads are (something we learned recently).
Check out Halford's full statement!
“I told someone, ‘Have you read about this? These guys in Cynic?’ He said, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ I said, ‘I am the only gay in the village! I ain’t having this!’” he laughs heartily, doing his best Daffyd Thomas impersonation.
“But what a fucking great thing to do,” he continues with admiration. “It’s all chipping away. There’s homophobia in metal, there’s homophobia in all kinds of music, but for the most part metalheads accept each other because we know we’re given a lot of stick, people don’t like us, they don’t like our music, they don’t like the way we look. So for those two guys to make that statement, it’s absolutely brilliant. It’s shit that you have to worry about this in 2014, isn’t it? It’s rubbish. But that just shows you the stupidity that goes on in the world. So God bless them. I know what it’s like to come out of the closet. It’s the best feeling in the world. Be true to yourself, live your life, don’t hide. Nothing’s going to hurt you, you can only hurt yourself. The real people that love you will love you regardless.”
“I belong to a minority,” he muses. “In some countries they’d kill us for being gay. It’s pretty deep when you think about it. Just to keep chipping away at that is a wonderful thing, and the more people that have that power to step up and say it, it just helps the overall cause. It’s a great time to live now, in terms of acceptance and tolerance. I’ve got a place in Amsterdam, and the Dutch never talk about this. Everybody’s just everybody. There’s no layers or brands. You’re just who you are. I hope that day will come [elsewhere] eventually. For people who play the type of metal they play to do what they did, it’s very valuable. I can’t wait to meet them.”
