Chappell Roan says there's "a lot of gay country artists" who won't come out due to stigma

18 March 2025, 12:43

Chappell Roan says there&squot;s "a lot of gay country artists" who won&squot;t come out due to stigma — Chappell Roan says there's "a lot of gay country artists" who won't come out due to stigma. Picture: John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy, Apple

By Sam Prance

As it stands, there's only one out gay country artist signed to a major country music label.

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Chappell Roan has spoken out about gay country artists and why so many of them will never come out in the industry.

Last week (Mar 14), Chappell made her first official foray into country music. Her song 'The Giver' is a lesbian country anthem that she worked on with Nashville musicians. Discussing the song with Amazon Music, Chappell said: "I can’t call myself the midwest princess and not acknowledge country music. My heart wanted to write a country song."

Now, Chappell has opened up about the country scene and how there are "a lot of gay country artists" in the closet.

Read more: Chappell Roan defends her right to make lesbian country music after releasing The Giver
Read more: What are Chappell Roan's 'The Giver' lyrics about? The queer meaning explained

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Speaking to Apple Music, Chappell pointed out that there are lots of queer people in country music. She said: "Even if it's not the artist that's gay singing, those backup singers, those girls on tour, the people playing banjo, there are gay people making the music. They may not be singing it but there are gay people that lift that project up."

Chappell continued: "And you know what, there's a lot of gay country artists who are not out and will never come out because of the stigma and because there's such few openly gay [country artists]. It's scary."

She also brought up how there are many gay people who love country music: "Let's not cut off the fans who are gay and love country. Let's not forget about who's buying your tickets."

Chappell Roan's 'The Giver' is a lesbian country anthem. Picture: Getty

As it stands, there is only one out gay country artist signed to a major country music label. In 2021, TJ Osborne of Brothers Osborne fame made history when he came out while signed to EMI Nashville.

Other queer country singers like Orville Peck are signed outside of the country label system. Meanwhile, Maren Morris is bisexual but she came out after leaving country music.

Fast forward to 10:00 to see Chappell's comments.

Chappell Roan: "The Giver" & Country Music | Apple Music

Speaking about how she feels about releasing her own queer country music, Chappell said: "It's scary. I wonder if people are gonna revolt against me making a very clearly lesbian song where I poke fun at country boys."