Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford has opened up in a new interview with Noisey. The iconic singer spoke about being the most famous opening gay man in heavy metal saying he won’t rest until he sees "equality across the board” and also gave an update on his long gestating black metal project.

In the interview, Halford addresses coming out and how the heavy metal community embraced him in the aftermath. “The moment I came out as a gay man, I never really thought of the consequences.” Halford continued, “As a result of that, you then get these beautiful messages back from your fans around the world saying that because you’re able to step forward and proclaim your sexuality in a strong way, in a proud way, that that’s helped them in life, and you go, ‘Wow.’”

Halford also discussed how there is a long way to go for acceptance of the LGBTQ community. “The battle goes on for me; as a gay man. I shall not be happy until I see equality across the board.” He added, “I don’t think it’s right that there’s one set of rules for one individual and another set of rules and laws for another individual. That’s not the way the world should work.”

The singer also touched on the discrimination he faced growing up in the U.K. in the '50s. “It was extremely difficult to live your life as you should have been allowed to do. Progressively, over the decades, I’ve seen major changes, like same-sex marriage, which is wonderful, to still terrible hate crimes that happen. We lose people in very violent ways. That’s just that flaw again of humanity again. Still a long way to go, but faith and optimism always rule the day in my world.”

Another major takeaway from the interview is an update on his black metal project, which has been floating around since the early 2000s. “It keeps being about to lift the launchpad, but it never quite gets anywhere,” Halford admitted. The Judas Priest frontman recently met Nergal from Behemoth and said, "You know I love your kind of music. I would love to kind of put my toe into the water and see what would happen," and, in the interview, added, "So now I’ve got these two very nebulous but I hope at some point very real opportunities to do something with Nergal and still something to [do] with Ihsahn."

Halford continued, “So now I’ve got these two very nebulous but I hope at some point very real opportunities to do something with Nergal and still something to with IhsahnAnthems to the Welkin at Dusk, that’s my big Emperor album. Both of them are incredible – they just have this real mastery of their world.”

Fans can read the entire Noisey interview here.

Earlier this month, Judas Priest released their 18th studio album, Firepower. The band is currently out on the road, see all their tour dates here.

See Where Does Firepower Ranks Among Judas Priest's Albums

Judas Priest's Rob Halford + Richie Faulkner Talk Firepower

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