Rob Halford, the frontman of Judas Priest, revealed that he married his longtime partner Thomas last year.

“We got married by the cactus outside on December the something or other, about a year or so ago,” said the Metal God on a recent episode of the Queer the Music podcast, hosted by Scissor Sisters vocalist Jake Shears.

You can watch the episode below.

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Rob Halford Details ‘Simple’ Wedding Ceremony and the Importance of Marriage

Despite being together for 30 years, Halford and Thomas delayed their marriage for a long time, partly because Thomas is “from the South. He’s from Alabama — extremely conservative, God,” Halford explained.

“I stopped asking, ‘Let’s get married.’ ‘No, I don’t want to get married.’ ‘Oh, let’s just get married. We’ve been together forever.’ ‘No, I don’t want to get married,'” the singer said. “And then suddenly on one of our night walks, he goes, ‘I think we should get married.’ [I went] straight home [and got] on the phone to get a pastor.”

Halford described the “simple ceremony,” which only involved a handful of guests. “It was obviously me and him and an officiant, as they call them, who are legalized to marry people. Two of my dearest friends, Jim Silvia, who was Priest’s [tour] manager forever, and his wife. 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.”

The frontman also explained why he considered the union significant. “Is marriage important? I’ll leave that up to you,” he said. “You decide whether you think a piece of paper is valuable. In some cases, it is — it’s extremely valuable. But for us to tie the knot, it’s just nice. It’s just a nice thing. It seems like you’ve completed something in your relationship, 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.”

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Rob Halford’s Advice for a Successful Relationship

When asked how to nurture a successful relationship, Halford had a simple but important piece of advice.

“It might sound silly, [but] if one of you cooks dinner, the other one should wash the dishes. You don’t cook dinner and wash the dishes. It has to be 50/50,” he said.

“The thing about relationships is that even though you love somebody deeply, you’ve still got this independence, haven’t you? You’re still a person, you’re still you, and I think that’s the great joy of a relationship, even if it’s a turbulent one.”

Judas Priest recently kicked off a co-headlining North American tour with Alice Cooper that runs through late October.

Rob Halford Reflects on His ‘Beautiful, Simple’ Wedding