New Bands: Fight, Two, Halford

Citing personal tensions within the band, Halford left Priest at the conclusion of the Painkiller tour in 1991.

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However, he did not languish long after leaving Priest. With Travis on drums, Halford formed Fight, a thrash-metal band featured in John Baxter's documentary Fight: War of Words (2007). Fight recorded two full-length albums, War of Words (1993) and A Small Deadly Space (1995), along with the EP-length Mutations (1994).

Fight toured the globe, playing small venues as well as larger stadiums. Fight's stripped-down stage was certainly a change from Judas Priest's pyrotechnic performances. While many of Fight's fans were fans of Judas Priest, Fight also appealed to an audience more interested in the head-banging thrash scene than in what they were hearing on commercial radio.

In Fight: War of Words, Halford commented that he was energized by this new audience's enthusiasm, as well as by Fight's level of musicianship and performance. Fight was ready to play anywhere they could plug in their amplifiers.

Halford joined guitarist John 5 (then John Lowery) to form the industrial band Two. In 1997, Two released Voyeurs, which was produced by Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails) and Dave "Rave" Ogilvie.

Two represented a departure from the genre of heavy metal, allowing Halford to experiment with a variety of musical ideas, tones, and styles.

In an interview with Chaos Control Digizine, Halford described the freedom he experienced as an artist with Two, which was "popping around all over the place musically." Gay pornography director Chi Chi LaRue directed the video for Two's single "I Am a Pig," which featured gay and straight adult-film actors.

Halford returned to the metal genre after his stint with Two, as he formed the band Halford in 1999. Critics and fans praised Resurrection (2000), as well as Live Insurrection (2001) and Crucible (2002).

In 2003, Halford appeared in the film Spun (directed by Jonas Åkerlund), playing a clerk in a sex shop.

Return to Judas Priest

Halford rejoined Judas Priest in 2003, and Priest released the Metalogy box set in 2004. In July 2003, the band released Angel of Retribution. The world tour that accompanied the release marked the band's thirtieth anniversary.

In June 2008, the band issued Nostradamus--a two-CD release based on the life and prophecies of Nostradamus. This latest CD is a bit of a departure for Judas Priest, who incorporate synthesizers, woodwinds, and orchestral strings on Nostradamus.

In Guitar World, Halford noted that, while he was writing Nostradamus with Downing and Tipton, he listened to classical music and operas to put himself in the right frame of mind for the project.

Halford continues to record and tour with Judas Priest, and he is also working with the band Halford, which is scheduled to release a CD later in 2008.

In addition, he voices the character of General Lionwhyte in the action adventure video game Brütal Legend, which is scheduled to be released by Double Fine Productions in 2008.

Offroad, Halford splits his time between residences in Phoenix, San Diego, Walsall, and Amsterdam.

Heavy Metal Homoeroticism

Although heavy metal is infused with , Halford is the only mainstream metal artist who has come out as gay.

At first glance, it may seem that is more prevalent than homoeroticism in heavy metal. Among male metal artists, there is a lot of macho posturing with phallic instruments, and women (both backstage and in the audience) often serve as sexual objects exclusively for the gratification of the male performers.

However, it is important to keep in mind that some metal performers--most notably those "glam metal" rockers (e.g., the "hair bands" of the 1980s like Cinderella, Mötley Crüe, and Poison)--significantly challenge heterosexual notions of masculinity.

Even in the early, pre-leather days of Judas Priest, the band members wore flamboyant outfits that could be described as more feminine than masculine. When he first joined Priest, for example, Halford would borrow his sister's clothes to wear on stage with Priest.

Later, when the leather look became more prevalent in the metal scene (largely thanks to Halford), it was often interpreted as an extreme affirmation of masculine heterosexuality. But the gay-inspired look was more likely intended as performative masculine drag or as indicative of a leather subculture.

Halford has glbtq fans, and they understand the queer subtext of his performance art. In The Advocate, Halford described meeting a fan who told him that, while watching Priest on MTV when he was 13 years old, he realized he was gay because he was turned on by Halford in his leather.

Still, metal is viewed as a largely heterosexual musical genre. In a 2007 interview with Spinner, Halford commented on his status as an out gay metal artist: "I'm invisible, really, in the gay community, and that's just because of where I do what I do--metal. Obviously, there are . . . gay, bisexual, lesbian metalheads. . . . But for all intents and purposes, I'm the invisible metal man in [gay] culture."

"Leather" is a blanket term for a large array of sexual preferences, identities, relationship structures, and social organizations loosely tied together by the thread of what is conventionally understood as sadomasochistic sex.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons have had tremendous influence on popular music, though some musical genres have been more receptive to a homosexual presence than others.

Although rock music has been closely associated with freedom of expression and rebelliousness, it has not been particularly welcoming to gay and lesbian performers.

Singer and lyricist Andy Bell, half of the synth-pop duo Erasure, is one of the few openly gay, high-profile rock musicians.

David Bowie, also known as "The Dame," became a leading light in 1970s "glam rock," going on to enjoy international superstar status, but his relationship to queer culture is deeply contradictory.

Pop superstar Elton John's combination of melodic skills, dynamic charisma, and raucous performance style have make him a remarkably popular musical artist.

The front man of one of the world's most popular rock groups, Queen, Freddie Mercury was noted for his flamboyant, gender-bending androgyny.

Featuring an openly gay singer-songwriter and an openly lesbian accompanist and chanteuse singing songs about love in all its permutations, Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields have produced some of the most critically acclaimed queer-themed popular music in recent memory.

Popular singer and songwriter George Michael, who confirmed his long-rumored homosexuality after an arrest for "lewd behavior" in 1998, has devoted much effort to AIDS charities since 1992.

The first rock band entirely composed of gay musicians who sang frankly gay-themed tunes, Pansy Division have recently emerged with a more mature sound.

In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, bisexual rock musician Lou Reed, pencil-thin, craggy, and dressed in tough leather or androgynous glitz, came to symbolize the rebellious outsider.

British rocker and activist Tom Robinson was embraced by the gay rights movement in the late 1970s, but became the subject of controversy in the 1990s when he chose to live with a woman and become a father.

A Manchester pop group that flourished from 1982 to 1987, The Smiths created a highly original brand of punk-inspired music with queer subtexts; the group's singer and lyricist, Morrissey, in his solo career cultivates an androgynous image.

Noted for his diminutive size and amazing voice, Jimmy Somerville achieved fame as the lead singer with the openly gay pop groups Bronski Beat and The Communards; many of his songs are overtly political and deal with such issues as gay relationships and the loss of friends to AIDS.

Lead singer, lyricist, and composer for the rock band R.E.M., as well as a movie producer, Michael Stipe identifies himself as a queer artist.