Meet Steve Grand, a rising country music singer who may be America’s first openly gay male country music star, and whose debut single is all about falling in love with a boy.
Grand says he’s putting his music career on the line by coming out as gay, but that he’s fought with his identity for most of his life and he’s “done playing it safe.”
“I fought with who I was for most of my life. In every way a young person can fight with himself,” Grand wrote on his Facebook page earlier this week. “But starting today… I’m laying it out there. I’m done playing it safe.”
The Chicago resident said he doesn’t have a manager or a record label or any sort of funding other than the money he makes playing piano at The Joynt, a jazz lounge in downtown Chicago.
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“I’m nervous/excited/horrified/anxious about the implications all of the choices I am making (and have made throughout my journey of discovering myself as a man and as an artist) will have on my future,” says Grand.
“But then I remind myself I never really had a choice. This is the story I’ve been aching to tell my most of my life… it is what I hold dearest to me.”
In his new single, “All American Boy,” Grand sings about his unrequited love for a man in a straight relationship.
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In addition to performing at The Joynt, Grand says that “ironically to some,” he performs in church on Sunday mornings.
“We’ll see how long I’ll be singing ‘Glory to God’ should this video see the light of day,” he muses.
We’ll see indeed. “All American Boy” has been viewed over 340,000 times since its debut on Tuesday.
