Ask the Flying Monkey (October 7, 2008)

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Ask the Monkey!

Q: There are openly gay singers in just about every music genre you could name (even Christian), but there doesn't seem to be even one country & western singer who's openly gay. I can think of a few who are rumored to be, but none who are out. Am I wrong? – Bill, Latham, NY

A: Sadly, you’re not, at least among major stars. In 1995, Ty Herndon was, of course, famously arrested for possessing meth and soliciting sex from an undercover male police officer in a Fort Worth park. In 2005, Kenny Chesney famously told the press he wasn’t gay after ex-wife Renee Zellweger cited “fraud” in her divorce papers. And in 1991, after Randy Travis was famously alleged to be gay by a tabloid, he suddenly announced his engagement to his much-older female manager; they were famously married twelve weeks later.

All these folks deny being gay, which may very well be true. But it also seems true that a lot of folks think that red state America, where country music is particularly popular, might have a problem with an openly gay country singer.

Clockwise from top left: Doug Stevens, Ty Herndon, Patrick Haggerty

Still, there are some out country singers. Patrick Haggerty, currently the only openly gay member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, released his Lavender Country album all the way back in 1973. And Doug Stevens has been rockin’ with The Outband since the 1990s. But these musicians have played to primarily gay audiences.

This is why the Monkey was so intrigued by American Pride, the would-be reality TV show that was supposed to be about the search for the first openly gay mainstream country star. The show was developed at both VH1 and Logo, but the project eventually fell through.

But all hope is not lost! The project has been revamped as a feature film and is now in preproduction with filming scheduled to begin in four months or so, for a release in about a year. Larry Dvoskin, the openly gay (and Grammy nominated) songwriter who’s spearheading the project, couldn’t be more excited.

“Country music is their dream,” Dvoskin says of the slate handful of out country musicians he’s profiling in the movie. “They just never thought anyone would ever come along to help them make it come true.”

Incidentally, Dvoskin, who has already received thousands of submissions from aspiring gay country superstars, is still taking applications! The Monkey is already tuning his guitar.

Q: Did Will & Grace jump the shark? If so, when? – Rhonda, Albany, NY

Sean Hayes, Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Megan Mullally

A: It’s generally considered that the show jumped the shark with its over-reliance on guest stars, especially in the fifth and sixth seasons. Others suggest the show jumped when Will and Grace decided to have a baby, or when Grace and Leo got married.

Accolades and zeitgeist-shifting aside, the Monkey thinks this show may have been fundamentally flawed from the start — sort of pre-shark-jumped. The show’s central characters, Will and Grace, were just too unappealing — whiny, bitchy, and, frankly, boring. Fortunately for the show, it also included two of the funniest sitcom characters ever created, Jack and Karen, played by two of the most talented sitcom actors of all time, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally. It’s not for nothing that people often referred to this show as Jack & Karen.

Next page! Tokio Hotel's androgynous frontman!