Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford tied the knot last year after more than three decades with his now-husband, Thomas.

The heavy metal icon broke the news this week in the second part of a two-part interview with Jake Shears on the out Scissor Sisters singer’s Queer the Music podcast. Halford said he’d asked Thomas to marry him several times over the course of their 35-year relationship, but suggested his now-husband’s “extremely conservative” background may have been the source of his cold feet.

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Halford said he’d given up asking when, “suddenly on one of our night walks, [Thomas] goes, ‘I think we should get married.’”

Halford told Shears he went home immediately and got on the phone to find a pastor to marry the couple.

“It was a very simple ceremony. Obviously me and him, and an officiant,” the singers recalled of nuptials. “There were 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.”

“It seems like you’ve completed something in your relationship,” Halford added of being married. “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.”

While the 74-year-old English musician — who came out publicly in 1988 — seems to be enjoying wedded bliss, he also expressed dismay at the lack of progress in LGBTQ+ acceptance in the heavy metal scene. Asked whether attitudes toward sexuality have changed over the years, Halford, who splits his time between the U.S. and the U.K., said that it depends on where you are.

“America is still incredibly homophobic,” he said. “I’ve lived here for a long time and I’ve seen a lot happen since the ’80s, and it really gets me angry and upset.”

Halford said he still encounters male fans when touring with Judas Priest who will tell him they love the band but are quick to clarify that they are not gay.

“That still lives with me now to some extent,” he said. “But when I walk out onstage when Priest is doing headline tours, and I know that everybody has come there to see this band… surely they’re there with complete acceptance in their heart. Everybody in that room is like, ‘We don’t care.’ As they shouldn’t.”

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