Fancy Hagood loves Costco, she does The Real Housewives of Salt Lake Cityand he’s really proud of the “new chapter” of music he’s starting with his latest single, “Southern Sound,” out October 4.
“My dream was to be a country artist, and I was quickly told when I got to Nashville that being a queer country artist was not an option. And so I put that dream on hold for a while,” says Hagood, who then moved to Los Angeles to try his hand at the pop scene.
But, “Miley Cyrus wasn’t lying. That’s not a party in Nashville,” he jokes.
So, Hagood turned around to truly pursue his life’s purpose.
“Being back in Nashville and creating with my friends, and inspired by so many changes that were happening, I really decided that I wanted to go back to my original dream and explore why I moved to Nashville in the first place when I was 17,” he explains. .
Still, he sees the irony in his love affair with country music.
“What’s funny is my debut album [Southern Curiosity], I was really, really adamant about not labeling it a country album, but then it ended up getting a lot of country airplay and a lot of support from country listeners,” he says. “And that was, in a way, a signal to me that it was time to step forward and be a change. I feel that ‘Southern Sound’ is the perfect fresh start and a new sound that I can confidently rely on for the first time.”
Country singer Fancy Hagood on life as a gay artist in Nashville: ‘All our stories matter’
Natalie Osborne
Hagood grew up exclusively in the South, born in Georgia and raised in Arkansas, so his roots mean a lot to him despite sometimes being at odds with his identity.
“I’m a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community and the only time I wasn’t living in the South was when I was splitting my time between Nashville and LA. Being a Southerner is part of my identity, and who I am has a lot to do with the way I was raised and my family,” he says. “It’s important for me to talk about how much I love being where I come from and how much I love being who I am. . It’s all the same to me.”
As for how to reconcile those two parts of yourself?
“I am mistaken. That’s how,” Hagood, 32, says with a laugh – but he means it.
“I’m like a real housewife. I believe in my big delusions and I believe in myself. And I’m really proud that I’m still standing. Many people quit their jobs. Many people are beginning to listen to the skeptics. When people don’t see me as tasty, I don’t understand it. When people don’t see me as a valuable market, it really confuses me,” he says. “And maybe I’ve had moments where I’ve kind of believed that, but in the end, I just believe in my dream, my vision, my music, myself .”
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Hagood also credits his friends and family for helping him achieve his dreams: He tours with the duo John and TJ, better known as Brothers Osborne — and Osborne’s sister, Natalie, happens to be Hagood’s manager.
“She is my platonic life partner. She’s my best friend,” says Hagood. “The whole Osborne family has just become a real family to me. And the fact that John and TJ are taking a chance on me and I’m a queer independent artist and they’re taking me on tour? I think it’s going to be the best tour I’ve ever been on.”
When Hagood isn’t busy on the road, he likes to spend time at home in Nashville, where he and his boyfriend, Jeremy, just bought a house.
“It’s really beautiful. I’m learning more about myself every day. I was single for 30 years and I met Jeremy in 2021 after the hardest year of my life,” says Hagood. “He is the greatest gift I have ever received.”
And Jeremy’s musical taste certainly doesn’t hurt either. He loves all things country, and Hagood says Jeremy now even jokes that Hagood “stole his aesthetic” with his new camo merchandise and affinity for trucker hats.
“He might be hitting on me that way, but I feel like he’s just bringing out that other side of me that I really, really love,” Hagood says. “’Southern Sound’ is about falling in love with a country music soundtrack and I feel like that’s really happening in my life and why [the song] even though we wrote it so long ago, it still seems to have so much life in it. I feel like I’m reliving it.”
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Source: HIS Education