Fancy Hagood on Reclaiming His Path as a Gay Country Artist, After Fleeting Pop Success: ‘I Do It for Queer People to See Themselves in a Story’
Jewly Hight Long before Chappell Roan debuted her new country song, “The Giver,” on “SNL” and leaned into the camera to exert lesbian ownership of country-style expression, Fancy Hagood was committed to carving out space for queerness in country music.
Earlier this year, he started covering Roan’s song “Casual,” joking that her unabashed lyrics had finally freed him up to sing about oral sex.
And that’s just the latest Nashville taboo that he’s broken. Hagood grew up in small-town Arkansas, and left for Nashville in the late 2000s to launch himself into stardom.
Soon after, he came out as gay, which proved a barrier to his ambitions, in spite of how he showcased his rippling tenor voice and gift for crafting stirring, ardent melodies on stages and in songwriting sessions alike.
