Hachette Books

Hachette BooksRob Halford‘s new memoir is called Confess, and that’s just what the Judas Priest frontman does in the book, delving into his highlight-filled music career, while opening up about being a closeted gay man in the macho world of heavy metal, his struggles with alcohol and drugs, and more.

Regarding whether he was apprehensive about exposing details of his personal life in the book, Halford tells ABC Audio, “This is the best way…for me to present myself…and that’s not really to varnish anything or just push something away.”

Rob compares writing Confess to the scene in The Wizard of Oz where “Toto pulls back the drapes” to reveal who the wizard really is. He notes that before he even signed the contract to do the book, he asked himself, “Do I really want to pull back the drapes?” Halford says he decided he had to be as “honest and open” as possible.

“[W]riting an autobiography from the heart this way, it does you good,” he tells ABC Audio. “Confession is good for the soul. That’s what they say, right? So, it was that and everything else.”

One interesting and heart-wrenching aspect of his life that Rob discusses in the book is his decision to keep quiet about being gay during his initial Judas Priest tenure because he feared that coming out would hurt the band’s career.

Meanwhile, asked to list some highlights of his life as frontman of one of the world’s most beloved metal bands, Halford mentions joining Judas Priest, making the group’s first album, coming to America for the first time, playing the Day at the Green concert with Led Zeppelin in Oakland, California, in 1977, and playing 1985’s Live Aid Festival.

Confess is available in hardcover and as an audio book.

By Matt Friedlander
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