Is it normal to have one-sided friendships?

So I have this best friend, but I’m not really sure if he sees me as a best friend. I’m quiet and shy; he’s outspoken. We’ve been friends for a long time, but it’s been kind of a shallow friendship. He’s the first person in a long time that I actually trust, and I feel like I could talk to him about anything. The problem is, I’m not sure if he feels the same way.
I’m not sure if he’s realized it yet, but I would do pretty much anything for him. We share food, drinks, and electronics all the time. We also share the same group of friends for the most part, but I don’t really talk with them much unless he’s around. I enjoy just being around him in general, more so than any of my other friends. He’s always got something to say, and behind the macho-stereotype exterior I see him as someone I kind of look up to but who would accept me for who I am. Maybe that’s just my mind jumping to hopeless conclusions though.
Both of us were raised pretty conservatively. When we’re with a group of people, he acts somewhat homophobic most of the time. We were also both raised to believe men aren’t supposed to show emotions and doing so with any man is a sign of weakness. You know, that stereotype that claims that any two guys that care about each other are automatically gay. As a result, neither of us have any close friendships. I honestly don’t care if it’s “gay” or not; it’s how I feel and it’s not going to change. I’m not sure if he would feel the same, though. I know for sure he considers me a friend, but he has a ton of friends and he doesn’t really trust any of them to the point of them being close friends. I think he might even be afraid of his own feelings to an extent because of how we were raised, like I was until I decided to accept it for what it was.
I want to tell him how I feel about him as a friend, but I’m terrible with people. He’s the closest friend I’ve ever had and I don’t really want to destroy our friendship, but this has made it really awkward between me and him. I keep wanting to be myself with him, but then I back down out of fear that it’ll push him away. The other day, I was going to tell him that he was my best friend. I had several different scenarios planned out in my head, but when the opportunity came, I couldn’t do it.
I’ve thought about just telling him how I feel, but I don’t want to damage our friendship. Should I try dropping subtle hints and see how he responds first? Is this normal? If so, what should I do about it?