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This week: We learn Kevin Keller’s future in Archie, celebrate Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s connection to Pillow Talk, and re-discover a great gay teen music video!

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Contact me here (and be sure and include your city and state and/or country!

Q: I have been a fan of Cowboy Junkies for a very long time. Although it’s an older song, I had never seen the video for the song “Miles From Our Home” until just recently. Are you familiar with it? I was very impressed with the gay-friendly story-line and thought you might be interested in checking it out. – Nate, Cincinnati OH.

A: Nate, thanks so much for sharing the link to this video! I was completely unaware of it – and I was only vaguely aware of the Cowboy Junkies, although they’re right down my alt-country-loving alley. And I am just massively impressed that they had the guts to do this multi-racial, gay-inclusive music video all the way back in 1998!

So was the song itself conceived of as “gay” or was that element added for the video? I asked Cowboy Junkies guitarist/songwriter Mike Timmons, and he told me it was the latter.

“The video was conceived by the director, whose name escapes me – it was over ten years ago,” Mike says. “We thought that the gay element gave the video an interesting added twist on the traditional video relationship storyline, so we were happy to go along with the concept. Beyond that we didn’t have a lot to do with the video – they were necessary evils of that era.”

The Cowboy Junkies

I couldn’t agree more with Mike that the gay-teen-on-the-road storyline gives the song itself an even more poignant meaning. I was hoping against hope that the band would’ve been praised for doing such a brave and forward-looking video – although I’m aware that praise from GLBT folks rarely comes without criticism from the people who hate us.

Interestingly, the video drew neither praise nor controversy.

“I think this is the first time anyone has ever asked me about it,” Mike says. “The song itself was a moderately successful single, so the video was probably moderately successful as well.”

Hey Nate, maybe we can help people rediscover it and give the band the credit they totally deserved the first time around!

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