Rob Halford Recalls ‘George Michael Moment’ Arrest
Rob Halford shares a number of untold stories in his new memoir, Confess, including a story he referred to his “George Michael moment.”
In an interview with NME, Halford touches on a story regarding him being “arrested for cruising Venice Beach toilets (in a case of police entrapment)” before he publically came out in 1998. The arresting officers didn’t release the arrest publically because they were Judas Priest fans and wanted to protect The Metal God’s privacy.
“The police did me a favour by keeping it out of the press because it would have been big news,” said Halford. “I always refer to that, slightly tongue in cheek, as my George Michael moment. I was lucky, because the sad thing is it makes people who don’t understand the gay community just go: ‘Obviously they’re all just a bunch of perverts’. And that’s horrible.”
While it’s not known when the arrest took place, Halford added, “I’d like to think for the most part if that incident had broken into the press then a great proportion of my fans would have said: ‘We’ll support you and stand with you’. A few years later, when I came out on MTV, that was a proven fact because the feedback from around the world was positive – they just wanted me to continue being the singer for Judas Priest and get on with the job.”
Confess comes out September 28 and is currently available for pre-order at HachetteBooks.com
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