Duh...they're gay

Rob Halford of Judas Priest

When the lead singer of British metal gods Judas Priest first popularized the heavy metal bondage/biker look—and helped create its theme song with the hit “Hell Bent for Leather”—not even his bandmates realized that he had copped his style from the “leather daddy” subculture that first arose in gay S&M clubs in the ‘70s. By the late ‘90s, however, the similarities between macho gay fashion and the Priest’s studded-leather look was becoming obvious even to the most obliviously hetero headbangers. Halford finally came out in 1998, becoming heavy metal’s first (but not last) gay icon. To the metal community's credit, Judas Priest's fan base remains massive—and mostly straight.