The shows that I did with Boys' Entrance in 2010 and so far in 2011 have gotten me to start thinking and reassessing. This is the twentieth year of Boys' Entrance, a period where I single-mindedly pursued rock music for gay people. I wanted to provide music and lyrics that spoke to our unique perspectives, needs, and experiences. But I have been feeling increasingly bridled.
In college, I took a creative writing class (got an A+!). The course taught me, "Write What You Know". That dictum has been my guiding light throughout my musical career. The course taught me that even in the intensely personal is a universal message, and that is the lesson I have clung to even as I spilled my guts on the most personal details of my life.
That was made easier by the thought that I was speaking to people like me first and foremost. The straights were incidental. But I did find that my music did cross over occasionally and some straights did pick up on it. I was blessed to work with straight friends who helped me produce the music I heard in my head. I am so grateful to those straight-but-not-narrow allies: Tom, Greg, Glass, Jeff, Vojo, Kurt, and Larry.
Here's the thing. I am feeling that what I want now is to be thought of as a gay ROCK STAR, more than a GAY ROCK star. The sound Mike Ferro and I are producing is ROCK. Yes, it is steeped in androgyny- like any good GLAM band is. But it ROCKS. Frankly, mos gays are not into it. They are made to believe they should be into dance and pop- or maybe that is what they actually like?
It has always been so. Broadway queens, Disco bunnies, House honeys, Techno twinks. It has always been so. There too have always been queens who rocked: Little Richard, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, Rob Halford (and countless closet cases and near-Missies).
I will not change my pronouns. I will not change my content to fit it. I am only changing my self-definition from GAY ROCK star to gay ROCK STAR.
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