Rob Halford is a famous musician from the UK and he is known for the Grammy awards he won in the genre of heavy metal. He is a member of a band called Judas Priest and he is considered to be one of the biggest influences in this genre. He shared with the world he is homosexual on MTV in 1998.
Early years
Rob was born in Sutton Coldfield which is in UK, but he grew up in Walsall which is a town located near Birmingham. During his early years, he got into music because of several of his idols: Little Richard, Janis Joplin and Robert Plant.
While growing up, he joined various bands and developed his vocal skills with the boys of Athens Wood, Abraxas Thark and Hiroshima.
However, his most memorable work comes from a band called Judas Priest.
Career development
Halford got into the world of Judas Priest when he became good friends with Ian Hill (the co-founder) because Rob used to have a romance going on with Hill’s sister.
Before that, Halford used to work as a cinema manager and he had some experience in singing, so the band took both him and his friend John Hinch (a drummer) from the band Hiroshima.
During summer of 1974, they made a single called “Rocka Rolla” and later released an album going by the same name. As soon as they realized the crowd loves them, they made more albums such as Sad Wings of Destiny, Sin After Sin, Stained Class and Killing Machine.
By now, Halford already changed his style into a gothic aesthetic and he was often seen wearing black, studs, leather, metal and so on.
In 1980s they decided to share British Steel with their crowd. The songs on the album were a bit shorter than before, but they stayed true to their style and were considered very good.
In 1982, they wrote an album called Screaming for Vengeance and made a few songs that ended up opening a whole new era called the glam metal time.
Their next album was called the Painkiller and it was released in 1990 (during autumn). It was a risk to make this album, the band stated, since they switched up both their style of music and their style of clothes. They all got numberous tattoo’s and therefore Rob did too.
Rob got a tattoo of a bent Judas Priest cross and shaved his head. He claimed that it was a style statement, but many people think he actually did it because his hair started to fall out so he just went with it.
During this tour, they made some special shows, such as the one they madde in Toronto. Halford decided to bring a huge Harley-Davidson to the stage and decided to ride it there.
Sadly, he ended up breaking his nose after he got into an accident in front of their 1991 crowd. The crowd, however, was not let down since he got back on the stage and finished the concert as soon as he became stable again.
There were rumours that the band had split because of the problems that emerged from this event because it seems as if the drummer had something to do with the accident. However, in a show called Behind the Music, he stated that it had nothing to do with the band splitting up.
He spent two decades with them and on 4th of July in 1991, he proclaimed that he is leaving and he decided to also make legal problems for Sony, their record label. He eventually left in 1992 and this finished up a huge era in his life which consisted of 12 studio and 2 concert albums.
He got into a band called Fight with the drummer from Judas Priest (Scott Travis), a bassist Jack Brown and two guitarists: Brian Tilse, Russ Parish.
They recorded two albums, one called War of Words before one of the guitarists was replaced and then A Small Deadly Space. The first one was a softer version of metal while the second one was very aggressive and grunge.
The songs they made ended up in the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer and this was a really big thing for the band.
However, things didn’t go well in the band since Halford felt sorry for leaving Judas Priest and therefore a reunion happened. In 2003, they decided to come back in their true form with an album called Angel of Retribution.
They toured and in 2008 Halford made Nostradamus with Judas Priest. Itw as a very special work of art since it merged a lot of styles in the medal genre and it became one of the best works in that area of music.
Besides his activity in Judas Priest, he had sang with Black Sabbath, opened a show for Ozzy Osbourne and even replaced him once when Ozzy had a lung illness.
In 2008, Rob said that he ould like to make a black metal album.
He also voiced a video game called Brutal Legend from 2009 and therefore made an appearance as General Lionwhyte.
He decided to share his fashion sense with others and made clothing line called Metal God Apparel.
As he always wanted to appear somewhere as an actor, he got the chance in Virgin Mobile and the movie Spun. His roles were not important.
Personal life
In 2012 he inherited a house in Phoenix in Arizona and therefore lives there until this day.
He says he can play many instruments such as harmonica, bass, drums, keyboards and so on, but he also claims that he’s not good enough to play live on stage so he never did.
He loves classic cars and has a Chevrolet Corvette, a Mercury Cougar and a Martin DBS. What’s funny is the fact that he got his driver’s license very late, when he was 38.
In 1998 he revealed that he is homosexual and he says that he knew it from a young age and he thinks that many people actually already knew it, but he felt comfortable telling it to the world just then.
Rob states that it was a wonderful feeling for him to tell people who he really is and he says that it’s so weird to feel comfortable while people know who you really are.
He says that he knows it’s not usual to meet a gay man in heavy metal, but he says that he would share this info about himself even earlier, only if he had the right mentality. He was also afraid that the saled were going to drop.
While hiding from himself and not letting the world know who he really is, he had period when he isolated hhimself and it was really depressing for him. He heavily used and abused various substances, including drugs and alcohol. He had to become sober or the band would’ve fell apart much earlier.
What’s usually a really interesting fact about him is the fact he loves Queen and considers himself a huge fan. He called the lead singer, the famous Freddie Mercury, one of the bravets men alive and he felt very sorry for the fact that he never met him.
Quick summary
Full name: Robert John Arthur Halford
Date of birth: 25 August 1951
Birthplace: Sutton Coldfield, UK
Age: 67
Profession: singer
Height: 180 cm
Weight: NA
Net Worth: $12 million
