Country music has one of its first out-and-proud vocalist in Steve Grand and — despite the limitations his sexuality would have posed in another era — Steve is well on his way to stardom.
“I think that we’re at a time now where there’s no room to be anything but totally honest and totally who you are,” the 23-year-old Chicago native told Buzzfeed. “I decided this is who I’m gonna be to the world. Just my true, raw self. I’m putting it all out there.”
And that’s exactly what he did in his self-funded, debut music video, “All-American Boy.”
In a time when Robin Thicke and Justin Timberlake produce videos with naked ladies, Steve’s is considered salacious for a whole different reason: It is all about his unrequited love for another man.
Within days of its release, the song has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube. Although Steve is still without a manager or label, those are likely inevitable next steps considering all the hype he’s experiencing.
That’s all good-and-well for the aspiring star. Equally exciting, he says, is that he can now be himself and inspire others to do the same.
“I’m still in awe,” Steve said. “I’m not a crier, but the comments have been so overwhelmingly positive. They’re thanking me for telling my story because they feel like it’s a story that hasn’t been told before. And that’s all I could ever hope for.”
(It’s not entirely accurate to call Steve the first gay male country star, considering Canadian singer Drake Jensen came out in 2012. He has since released a song on his album OUTlaw about the scars a bullied LGBT youth carries through life. However, Drake’s song has significantly fewer views on YouTube.)
As is often the case, Steve’s success is further heightened by the contrasting struggles he’s experienced. Born and raised in a strict Catholic family, Steve first realized his sexuality when he was a 13-year-old at summer camp. While still coming to understand what his feelings meant, he often surfed around on the Internet. It was through his search history that his parents learned of Steve’s “unwanted same-sex attraction” and sent him to years of ex-gay therapy.
Unsurprisingly, the counseling did little more than make Steve feel ashamed.
In the years since then, Steve has regained the confidence to be out among friends. (His mother eventually came to accept his sexuality, but he says it’s not a topic of discussion around the dinner table.) Still, he was reluctant to reveal his sexuality to his church, where he is paid to perform.
Faced with the decision to either go full steam ahead with his dream or fear the unknown consequences, Steve opted to be brave.
“All I know is that I’ve passed the point of no return,” he said. “There’s no going back now.”
