REVIEW "CONFESS"-AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY ROB HALFORD

Now, about one and a half years after its publication, I have read the autobiography of Rob Halford, singer of Judas Priest. I have to say, it's a great autobiography, I read the more than 500 pages almost in one day, Halford really knows how to write both exciting and funny. He begins with his childhood and youth on the council estate in Walsall, a town near Birmingham, and the description of the sobriety and down-to-earthness of the people living there, most of whose working part is in the steelworks. Halford describes how he discovered theatre for himself and then came to his great passion, music. The first steps with Judas Priest, infinitely small recording budgets, journalists who ask the same stupid questions and even think they are interviewing a singer/songwriter called Judith Priest.

Little by little, the band's breakthrough happens. Halford gets into a vicious circle of alcohol and depression, as he does not dare to make his homosexuality public for decades. Again and again he comes into contact with heterosexual men and has to satisfy his needs in motorway toilets with strangers. The whole thing is mainly due to the fear that a heavy metal band with a homosexual singer would not be accepted. Halford fears the end of his career if he comes out, but also, above all, that of the band; he feels responsible for his band mates. When he spontaneously made his homosexuality public during an interview with MTV towards the end of the 90s, it was the liberation blow of his life. His alcoholism had been under control for a long time, he no longer touched a drop of alcohol. To his own astonishment, his fellow musicians knew about his sexual orientation from the beginning, but never made it an issue. 

Of course, Halford's departure from the band, which he describes as an accident, is also discussed, as well as the years of silence between him and the rest of the band and how much Halford suffered from it.  His projects Fight, Halford and 2wo, produced by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor are mentioned as well as his return to Priest, also celebrated by the fans. The book is rounded off with an account of meetings with illustrious figures as diverse as Madonna or the Queen, to whom Halford is introduced at a meeting with deserving representatives of the British music scene and music industry, and of whom he has always been a devotee, which probably not everyone would have thought.

Of course, the accusation against the band is also dealt with, when two teenagers who were Priest fans committed suicide and now the band is being held up as a scapegoat. With partly hair-raising arguments of the prosecution, keyword "backward masking", the prosecutors tried to hold the band responsible. In the end, however, the judge could not help but agree with the convincing argumentation of Halford, the band and their lawyers.

All in all a great book, a must for Priest fans, even if it is not a Priest band biography in the true sense. Because of the interesting and entertaining way of writing it is in any case also a worthwhile book for all those interested in unusual lifestyles.