ROB HALFORD Laments Political Polarization In America: 'It's So Difficult Now To Have A Simple Disagreement'

In a new interview with Los Angeles Times En Español, JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford, who famously came out as a gay man during a 1998 chat with MTV, spoke about the fact that many of the band's fans hold different viewpoints on a variety of subjects, including LGBTQ rights. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "It's very, very true that the metal world has a lot of conservative fans. That's just the way that they are. I think it's extraordinary, but I accept it. I don't quite understand it, but then this is the joy of life and free will and choose your music. But the fact that I'm in a band that occasionally will make a provocative statement, plus I'm a gay man in a world-famous heavy metal band, probably the most famous heavy metal person that will have ever, ever live — he says, smiling, slightly tongue in cheek — but wrap all that up, in today's world, the clamor and the clatter of incensed keys, what I've noticed as I've grown and I've lived this long life, it's so difficult now to have a simple disagreement. There's so much hate and there is so much violence between ideas. Two people in the same room that have never met each other that have two separate ideas about a subject, but they both wanna kill each other because they don't agree. [Laughs] It's insane.

"I'm not a political person," Rob clarified. "I enjoy great political debates, which I haven't seen or heard in the longest time. But in terms of debating ideas, philosophical, sociopolitical, anthropological, whatever it might be, I love to see sane, intelligent people having a conversation about an idea or a subject matter that are at odds with each other, but they're civil. They can disagree, but they don't pull a gun out or start punching each other in the face. Unfortunately, that seems to be the world that we live in, to a great extent. Not completely so, because propaganda has never been stronger in America now than I can remember as a kid growing up in the '50s and the '60s. The way that the way that the truth is distorted — this idea that if you tell a lie long enough, people believe it to be the truth — is insane. It's insane.

"I know we're going off the subject, but there are metal fans, conservative metal fans, that have some of those qualities," Halford added. "And I love the fact… I saw a clip of me the other day when I said at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, 'Hi everybody, I'm the gay guy in the group,' and the roof went off. And then I said about inclusivity.

"When I was out on stage last night in Missouri, I look at all these people and I know for a fact there's a complete spectrum of people from all walks of life, all economic walks of life. Some people have got there in a beat-up old truck, some people have driven their Ferrari, but we're all in the room together, we're all banging our heads together, and we're all having the time of our lives together. And this is never lost on me, as I watch the way people react. I just think it's the most profoundly beautiful expressions that any artist can be immersed in, to see the humanity of the evening come together in a unified type of acceptance and celebration of the music that we all love. So that's never lost on me. I'll never lose sight of the power that music has, whether it's to give people the greatest night out of their lives or to start a revolution when you wake up in the morning. You see your favorite artist, and the next day you're gonna make some kind of revolution, whether it's change something in your life, change your job, whatever, go and stand on a box in the corner of a street and start yelling about Israel and Gaza — whatever it is, this is the power of music. I love all of this type of conceptual ability that the show can do can give you.

"But, yeah, that's what I love about the heavy metal community," Rob concluded. "There are differences on all different levels, but for that particular show, we're united as one people for the love that we have for this kind of music."

Halford previously touched upon political polarization in America this past April while speaking to Planet Rock about the lyrical inspiration for the song "Trial By Fire", which appears on PRIEST's latest album, "Invincible Shield". He said: "Thinking of the words, it's a reference to the way that judgment and misconstrued perceptions and ideas can be put on you. And going deep, that's the society that we live with today. People can rush to judgment, people can bring in their own ideas and agendas that tip the balance of truth. We live in a world today now where lies can be pushed so strongly and so forcefully by powerful figures that a lie becomes the truth. And that's a terribly dangerous place to be. So, we're utilizing that type of open forum and discussion and bringing it into this title, 'Trial By Fire'."

When Planet Rock's Mark Jeeves noted that PRIEST has "always been a band with a social conscience", Rob said: "Yes. All the way back to 'Savage', which is about global warming, and that was in 1970-something. A lot of the times we don't make the message truly in the black-and-white sense; we leave it open to interpretation. The songs become their own entities. We let our fans have fun with the messages that we put out. Some of them are very straightforward and obvious — 'Breaking The Law', 'Living After Midnight' — but then in an opportunity like 'Panic Attack' or 'Trial By Fire', we go deeper. We let you find your own way and bring your own conclusions to the idea."

Three years ago, Halford was asked by one of the readers of U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine if politics have a place in metal. He responded: "Absolutely they do and I've been putting my two penn'orth into PRIEST's music for most of my life, but it's concealed by smoke and mirrors. Take a song like 'Evil Never Dies' [from 2018's 'Firepower' album]. I make some digs there and I know what I mean, but here's the thing, especially for a band like PRIEST: music is about escapism.

"If I hear one more thing about Brexit, I don't know what I will do," he added. "To me there's a place for politics and I applaud bands that make it important in what they do, but with me the clues are there if you want to look for them."

Back in 2018, Halford told Newsweek that he was "not a Donald Trump supporter," explaining that the then-U.S. president's policies had turned political divides into chasms and alienated minority groups like the LGBTQ community.

"It's a very shaky time right now," Rob said. "I have so much faith in this country. But it does seem as though the brakes have been slapped on. It's indeed disturbing, and it's such a shame, because throughout the Obama administration, tremendous things were achieved on the basis of human equality. That's the issue here. Treating one bunch of people this way, and treating this bunch that way. You can't do that. You have to give everybody the same rights."

Halford acknowledged that many PRIEST fans won't agree with those views, saying that "there's a ton of metalheads that are supportive of [the Trump] administration." But, he added, "That's great. That's okay. You're not bringing that to the show. We're there to all join together, and that is the beautiful thing about a free, transparent society — which we don't appear to have right now. Some fans are completely opposite to me politically. But we can still be in the same room and have a good time and hopefully have a good discussion while respecting each other's opinions."

Released in March, "Invincible Shield" entered the U.K. chart at No. 2, just behind Ariana Grande's "Eternal Sunshine".

Prior to "Invincible Shield"'s arrival, PRIEST's highest U.K. chart achievement was with 1980's "British Steel", which reached No. 4.

PRIEST's 2018 album "Firepower" entered the chart at No. 5.

"Invincible Shield" is JUDAS PRIEST's fifth Top 10 album, after the aforementioned "British Steel" and "Firepower", as well as 2014's "Redeemer Of Souls" (No. 6) and the 1979 live album "Unleashed In The East" (No. 10).

"Invincible Shield" landed at No. 1 in Germany, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as No. 5 in France, No. 8 in Italy and No. 16 in Australia.