We recently ran a piece about one of the greatest albums in metal history, Judas Priest’s Screaming For Vengeance, which hit record stores thirty years ago way back in 1982.
Priest is one of the most important bands in metal history, and they influenced countless metal bands throughout the ages. Rob Halford is also without a doubt one of the best singers and frontmen ever, and he also practically invented the metal look of leather and studs from head to toe.
Halford said he would buy his stage clothes from S&M shops, and unbeknownst to metalheads at the time, a lot of the metal look came from gay culture. Halford officially came out of the closet in the late ’90s, but it was never any big secret he was gay.
Yet it’s funny to think how homophobic a lot of metalheads were back in the day when one of the greatest singers in the genre was gay, especially since the metal look itself came from gay culture, and when you went to a metal gig back in the ’80s, you couldn’t find a woman within miles.
So now that Halford’s officially “openly gay,” (again, we knew Rob), he was of course asked about the current controversy over Chick-fil-A’s anti-gay marriage views, which has caused the chain no end of trouble. To tell you the truth, I’d never heard of this place when all the controversy erupted, and have no idea if there’s even one in my neighborhood or not, can’t recall ever seeing one driving around.
But as Halford told Noisecreep, “Before I get into this, I just want to say I love America. I love the American Constitution and the First Amendment…Everybody in this country has the right to say what they think and feel and what best represents them. The people at Chick-fil-A have the absolute right to say and do what they want. It doesn’t matter that all of these people disagree with their opinion.”
That said, the fact that many have been boycotting the company is “great. That’s our right here. What you’re seeing here are the elements of the American Constitution in all of their glory. It’s a wonderful thing to see happening and talk about and the fact that everyone is discussing the gay rights issue is great.”
I haven’t even been keeping track how all this came up in the first place, because why would anyone who owns a restaurant franchise think anyone gives a sh*t about his opinion of gay marriage. But now that the guy’s put his foot in it, he’s learning the hard way that this is having an impact on his business.
Again folks, we have way more important issues to be worried about in this country than gay marriage. And as a card carrying metal-head for many years, it’s also nice to see that the fans couldn’t have cared less when he finally made the big announcement we all knew anyways. The dude’s a great singer, and a legend in metal, end of story.
