JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford opened up about myriad topics during his recent interview on the “Queer the Music” podcast, including his marriage to his longtime partner Thomas last year.
The metal icon and Thomas have been together for more than three decades, but finally made it official in 2024, as Halford told podcast host and SCISSOR SISTERS singer Jake Shears [as transcribed by Blabbermouth].
“We got married by the cactus outside about a year or so ago,” said Halford, who has lived in Phoenix since the mid 1980s.
Halford said he had long desired to officially tie the knot with Thomas, but eventually stopped asking. Then, it was Thomas who suggested they get married last year, and they didn’t hesitate after that.
“[I would say], ‘Let’s get married.’ ‘No, I don’t wanna get married.’ ‘Oh, let’s just get married. We’ve been together forever.’ ‘No, I don’t wanna get married,‘” Halford said. “And then suddenly on one of our night walks, he goes, ‘I think we should get married.’ [I went] straight home [and got] on the phone to get a pastor.”
Halford described it as a “very simple ceremony.”
“It was obviously me and him and an officiant, as they call them, who are legalized to marry people. [Also present were] two of my dearest friends, Jim Silvia, who was Priests’s [tour] manager forever, and his wife. There was just four of us around the pool, around the cactus, the heavy metal cactus. And it was over in an instant. But it was just a beautiful, simple ceremony.”
He added, “Is marriage important? I leave that up to you. You decide whether you think a piece of paper is valuable. In some cases, it is — it’s extremely valuable. But for us to tie the knot, it’s just nice. It’s just a nice thing. It seems like you’ve completed something in your relationship, more than anything else. The commitment goes to another level when you get married. It’s a great thing to do. And if it doesn’t work, that’s life. But I think after being together for 35 years, it’s working.”
Elsewhere in the extensive conversation with Shears, Halford lamented that “America is still incredibly homophobic.”
The Metal God is currently on the road as JUDAS PRIEST continue their co-headlining tour with Alice Cooper – the trek will run through late October.