Compulsively readable! This very entertaining autobiography takes the reader all the way from the Metal God's entirely ordinary boyhood all the way up to the Great 2020 Pandemic and how it has affected Judas Priest. Rob (or him and his ghost author at least) write in a conversational, witty style that is fun to read and feels surprisingly intimate. The title is certainly appropriate as he confesses to all sorts of indiscretions. Highly recommended to fans of Judas Priest and maybe to metal fans in general. ( )

Halford, the singer and lead lyricist for Judas Priest, doesn't do an autobiography halfway, and the title is spot on. Would we have ever known that he's been banned from Camp Pendleton for lewd behavior?
He tells the reader all about it.
He has chapters about growing up in an industrial Northern town with loving parents whose arguments sometimes included his father slapping his mother. He remembers the exact moment in school, when asked to sing on his own, that the music teachers realized he had talent, and that his family was always behind him as he first pursued an acting career before returning to music.
And he recounts how he joined a band called Judas Priest that needed a singer, and their long career together. He discusses the making of each album and gives his honest opinion of any shortcomings, even with his own performances. He also discusses the dynamics within the band, such as the decades long friction between guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton, and the reasons why they've gone through as many drummers as Spinal Tap. He also explains how he accidentally quit Priest and why his absence from a band he loved dragged on for so long.
Throughout the book is Halford's stress in hiding his homosexuality. First from his family, then from bandmates and the fans, Halford describes the intense loneliness in being unable to openly pursue romance, and he speaks very intimately of how gay men in the 70's and 80's found each other, and of how often he pursued relationships with straight men, which always ended in unhappiness.
The book concludes right now in the pandemic, with plans for what fans can expect from the band once this is over. ( )

It isn’t really a ‘confession’ to say that I’ve been a Judas Priest fan since the early 80s. Defenders of the Faith is my favorite album followed by Painkiller. Halford’s voice, along with other powerhouses of the genre, cemented my love for real singing in metal and it continues to this day. So when I saw that Halford himself narrates his memoir, I knew I’d spend an audible credit on it. Definitely worth the price of admission.

With a warning - if you can’t handle frank discussion of homosexuality, man-on-man encounters and the repercussions of being in the closet, this might not be the book for you. It’s not a blow-by-blow account (pardon the pun), but it is pretty blunt. As is everything in Halford’s Confession. After many false starts and years of shame and repression, I was very glad to hear Rob found the love of his life and has a contented relationship that nurtures and supports him. He lets us in on his thoughts, feelings, alcohol and drug abuse, personality, spirituality, triumphs and mistakes. Overall it’s an even-handed look at a life many of us would be envious of from the outside looking in.

But it isn’t easy becoming a Metal God ™ and Rob tells it like it was. I liked the balance of narrative - you get a lot about the band, but also a lot about the man. I feel like I know a lot more about Rob than I do about Priest (other than Ken “KK” Downing being pretty much an asshole), but there is enough about the band that I have a better sense of what it’s like not just being in a metal machine like that, but being the face of it. And even one further - the iconic embodiment of the heavy metal genre as a whole. Not an easy burden to carry, but Halford does it with aplomb and a dose of humility that isn’t of the ‘humble-brag’ variety.

Rock on, Metal God ™ . I hope you’re flashing the horns and cracking the whip until you drop. ( )