During a recent interview with UCR Judas Priest’s Rob Halford talked about the glam era days and recalled the hair metal movement from the ’80s.

Here’s what the singer said:

“When you think about the glam rock movement, what it was, specifically, two bands that really pushed that for me were Motley Crue and Poison, and, to some effect, Cinderella, maybe some Winger, L.A. Guns. There was a lot of stuff coming through at that moment in the glam rock era. And definitely Sebastian [Bach], you know, when guys looked like girls… And that worked.

“And I could never quite figure that out, because of the homophobic stuff that was going on in the ’80s. And there’s all these guys with makeup on, looking … I have to watch my words here, but you know what I’m saying? Looking in a specific way, that everybody else is like, ‘Yeah, man, they’re really hardcore,’ and all that kind of stuff.

“And then me as a closeted gay man, it’s like, ‘Am I missing something here? How am I not able to come out for fear of losing my career and my band, but these guys are going out there looking like they do, and everybody’s falling over them?’

“Not everybody, but, you know, just the general perception of the imagery was just, everybody has to look that way. Everybody has to dress that way. It [was] a remarkable time in heavy metal and rock to think about in a broader sense.”