Accept lead singer gay

The gloominess and noisiness of that world, along with the frustration of limited employment options, were the perfect ingredients for the intense, anti-authority anthems that the genre would create. In his young adulthood, he struggled for years with drugs and addiction, though after a one-month stint of rehab in early , he never drank or did drugs again.

He was asked by the queen of England why heavy metal was so loud. Tragically, an ex-boyfriend struggling with depression and addiction shot himself in the head one night after Halford had quarreled with him over his drug use. It's deadly serious stuff. In recent times, it's been very apparent the issues that we have to deal with in rock 'n' roll, whether it's booze or drugs or some kind of mental issue.

He was often lonely. Halford is now pushing back against the way these life-or-death realities are often minimized or even dismissed. But amid these colorful stories are darker moments, both in terms of industry dealings and especially in keeping himself closeted for so long.

That led to rehab. As chronicled in his book, Halford himself attempted suicide with pills back in late He immediately regretted it, and a close friend got him to the hospital in time to get his stomach pumped. "But it was not a gay song." The American album cover, which showed cross-section of a leather clad-biker wearing what looks like S&M gear and holding a ball of some sort, was the impetus for the gay rumors.

The band and its management knew about his sexuality and were accepting, but he was advised to be discreet given the macho hetero nature of the metal world. You've got to let it go. You'd think it would be easy, but it's not for some people. But the other side of the coin is what matters more.

Accept is a German heavy metal band from Solingen, formed in by lead guitarist Wolf Hoffmann, singer Udo Dirkschneider and bassist Peter Baltes. Their beginnings can be traced back to the late s when the band got its earliest start under the name Band X. Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford has always lived a loud and proud heavy metal life, but only in during an MTV interview did he become the first metal icon to announce he is gay.

We're losing beautiful people. I've tried to really emphasize the difficulty that I went through in being able to come to that point at the MTV studios and just come out in person in a very dramatic way. That began early on with the smothering exhaust of the local ironworks Halford grew up near in Walsall, England, a region known as the Black Country.

After leaving the band in , he formed the band U.D.O., in which he has also enjoyed commercial success. IE 11 is not supported. Halford was born in , and homosexuality was illegal in the U. While a few mainstream metal frontwomen like Otep and Lzzy Hale have been open in recent years about being gay or bisexual, Halford remains the only major gay male metal icon.

And succeeded. It's not, let's have a laugh about the guy that nearly killed himself last night. Rock memoirs are littered with tales of life on the edge, of course. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. In his youth and even early Priest years, Halford was sexually preyed upon, including by a friend of his father who got him a theater job.

Udo Dirkschneider (born 6 April ) is a German singer who first rose to fame with the heavy metal band Accept. His struggles also yielded some positive things, however, and helped feed his music. Many officers in that precinct were Priest fans and kept the situation out of the press.

"A lot of people say that was a gay song," lead singer Udo Dirkschneider told us. He soldiered on, keeping his sexuality a secret to all but a select circle. DIRKSCHNEIDER"Back To The Roots - Farewell To Accept" tour, which kicked off last year, sees him playing classic ACCEPT songs for the last time.

It's a tough thing to do even in today's world. Halford has always had a larger-than-life persona on stage, on album and in press appearances.