Where Are the Queer Country Singers?
Dear Hank:
I grew up in the South (North Carolina), and as a kid, I always found country music embarrassing. But as I’ve grown older, I love singers like Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw, and Kacey Musgraves. I love them for their music and because they love us queers.
But where the hell are the real queer country singers?
Kuntry Kweer
Dear Kuntry Kweer:
Good question. And I have some answers for you! This “kuntry kweer” (I also was born in North Carolina), has been following the emergence of LGBTQ country musicians for years. And my iPhone collection of what I call “dirty country music,” also includes songs from hetero country musicians that reference our communities, often in pretty funny ways.
Back in the day, country music was performed by straight white guys (and a few women). Being country and queer was risky, and if you need evidence of that, look at Patrick Haggerty’s story. In 1973, Haggery’s Lavender Country band (a name that hints strongly at his sexual orientation) released an eponymous album that featured songs with titles like “Cryin’ These Cocksuckin’ Tears” and “Back in the Closet Again.” Haggerty “self-published” that album, selling maybe a thousand copies. Widely considered to be the first album by an openly gay country singer, it effectively killed Haggerty’s career until 2014, when a producer re-released it with promotions in the gay newspaper in Seattle, Haggerty’s hometown. Then in 2022, Haggerty, at the age of 78, released his second album: “Blackberry Rose.” He died soon thereafter.
Another little-known early country queer is Robby Reverb (his rock musician name). As a country musician, he goes by Qowboy Verna. In the 1980s, his gay punk band mOral SeX recorded “Accept It”, written by gay poet Drew Blood.
The careers of other early country musicians like k.d. lang and Chely Wright came to a halt after they came out as queer. Wright even faced death threats. But jumping ahead, now there are several celebrated queer country stars. Lil Nas X and Brandi Carlile are Grammy Award winners, and there’s Orville Peck, the country musician from South Africa, and drag queen Trixie Mattel, to name a few. The Osbourne Brothers’ T.J. Osbourne came out as gay in an interview with Time magazine in 2021.
But my favorite gay country singer is Alabama boy Dixon Dallas. Dallas, who also performs under the names “Jake Hill” and “ur pretty” (it’s not clear which is his real name) went off the charts with the release of “Good Lookin.” YouTube was flooded with videos of people looking stunned as they heard him sing lyrics like: “He’s bouncing off my booty cheeks, I love the way he rides / I can hardly breathe when he’s pumping deep inside.”
In interviews, Dallas declines to say whether he’s gay or straight or bisexual. In an interview with Pride.com, Dallas said “No, I haven’t disclosed my sexuality. I could be gay. I could be straight. I could be bi. At the end of the day, I feel like it doesn’t matter. There’s no law that says I can’t write a song about getting my booty cheeks bounced off of.”
My gaydar says he’s a member of our tribe!
Like you, I also love and appreciate the support of hetero country singers like Dolly Parton. But I also get a kick out of songs by less well-known hetero country musicians like Wheeler Walker Jr., Rodney Carrington, and Scuzz Twittly whose songs are so delightfully obscene you probably won’t be hearing them on a local country music radio station. Wheeler Walker’s song to his wife (“I Sucked Another Dick Last Night”) is one of my favorites. (“Now darling don’t get me wrong. It’d be you if you had a dong,” is his apology to her). Scuzz Twittly’s “Yer a Homo” is a funny story of stereotypes (“If you don’t love NASCAR, yer a homo. If you don’t love huntin’ bear, yer a homo. If you don’t like fightin’ in a ballroom brawl, you better check up yer skirt, ’cause yer missing balls. Yep, you guessed it, yer a homo”). And Rodney Carrington’s “Gay Factory Worker” and “Dancing with a Man” are also worth a listen.
You’ve asked one of my favorite questions! I haven’t lived in the South in decades. But like they say: “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.”
Your Kuntry Kweer,
Hank
Questions you straight people can’t bring yourself to ask your gay friends and neighbors? Or maybe you’re just queer and befuddled. Send them to Hank@AskAGay.net. (Warning: The answers will be factually correct, but might not be politically correct)
