Orville Peck opened up about his challenging journey as an openly gay country artist in a new interview.
Since his debut in 2019 with his critically acclaimed album Pony, the 35-year-old talent has ruled the music sphere with his twangy vocals, trademark fringe mask and mysterious persona.
In addition to crafting his own unique lane in the industry, Peck has also made waves for being one of the few openly gay country music artists.
While the talented singer is showing no signs of slowing down his music takeover, the start of his career featured an array of setbacks due to his identity.
In a recent interview with People, the Dead of Night singer revealed that people “laughed” at him and his country music aspirations.
“It was a lot of people practically laughing in my face, telling me that being an openly gay man in country would never work,” he said.
“I’ve met very discouraging moments in my career. But I just kept my chin up, and I refused to let anybody tell me that I couldn’t do what I wanted.”
While Peck admitted to facing pushback for his queer identity, he never gave up on his country music dreams.
“If someone tells me I can’t do something, it makes me want to do it even more,” he added.
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Elsewhere in the interview, the former GAY TIMES cover star opened up about working with music legend Shania Twain.
“She’s meant so much to me. I was a 14-year-old in South Africa listening to Shania Twain in my bedroom. She’s a gay icon. She’s a fashion icon. She’s always been an ally,” he said.
“And meeting her, the most beautiful thing about her is that she’s the most down-to-earth, lovely, chill person. My first experience really spending time with her was on her ranch in Las Vegas, and she was literally running her horses in the mud and just wearing jeans and a T-Shirt, and we were having burritos out on the deck and just talking about horses and life and music.”
Peck went on to praise the “defiant trailblazer” for refusing to be anything but a strong woman “who wasn’t going to be subservient to men.”
“When she first came to Nashville, she had a lot of issues about her acceptance in country music… look at her now. She’s a global icon,” he said.
In addition to Peck breaking ground in the conservative genre, other country artists – like Kelsea Ballerini and Maren Morris – have used their platforms to showcase their LGBTQ+ allyship.
Back in January, Morris raised $100,000 for trans youth after calling out Brittany Aldean and Fox News host Tucker Carlson for their transphobia.
At the start of April, Ballerini used her CMT Awards performance to combat Tennessee’s anti-drag ban. During the iconic moment, the Grammy-nominated singer brought out Drag Race’s Olivia Lux, Kennedy Davenport, Manila Luzon and Jan Sport.
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