Flamy Grant Is Playing Country Music in Churches: 'I'm Just Planting My Stiletto in the Sanctuary Now' (Exclusive)

When Flamy Grant put her foot on the gas pedal of her rented Dacia Sandero Stepway on a trip to Scotland last year, she did her best to turn off the music.

“I drove all the way from London in silence,” Grant, 42, tells PEOPLE. “I mean, I listened to the audio book, but most of the time I didn’t listen to the music. I actually replaced my guitar while I was up there. I came home with a different guitar than the one I brought with me.”

Grant laughs, as life’s little detours electrify the soul of the Asheville, North Carolina native who has become an award-winning and Billboard– a chart-topping artist who became a darling performer in 2020 and went viral the very next year.

And while Grant – whose real name is Matthew Blake – has been living a pretty loud life lately, she’ll also be the first to admit she’s an introvert. “Flamy can be fun and flashy and throw meetings a mile long,” she notes. “But then I go home, take all the weight off and just want to cocoon for a bit.”

The realization of what your spirit definitely needs has come with age for Grant, who officially burst onto the music scene with the release of her debut record in 2023. Bible Belt Baby – which topped the iTunes Christian Chart and reached No. 1 on the same chart in the form of the “Good Day” rallying cry. This made her the first drag performer to achieve such a worthy feat.

Flamy Grant.

Sydney Valiente

Drag Queen Flamy Grant Feels ‘Grateful’ to See Her Music Embraced by Queers and Christians (Exclusive)

And now, Grant’s current album CHURCH enjoys much the same fate, but this time on the iTunes Country chart. Certainly, the storytelling woven into songs like the cute single “Do It for the Song” kept the eyes of the country music industry on her.

“Songs are my sacred space, and ‘Do It for the Song’ serves as a kind of invocation at the beginning CHURCH,” Grant says of his new single. “This is why I’m here. Kneel before the altar and be baptized in the beauty of the song.”

Flamy Grant.

Sydney Valiente

She also spreads this beauty in the most unusual places.

“I’ve actually played in over 40 churches over the last year,” says Grant, whose home in Asheville was fortunately spared any damage from Hurricane Helena last fall. “But yes – there are also many churches and believers who are not so enthusiastic about my existence in what they see as their space and as their world.”

That’s fine, according to Grant, as she’s come to realize that some people just need time to let new ideas take root, as she too comes from a strict religious upbringing.

“I’m from that world,” emphasizes Grant, who served as a worship leader for more than 22 years before finding her true calling. “It’s funny when people say I’m invading their space, or that I don’t belong. I’m like, ‘Honey… you all raised me.’ This is not a criticism that comes from the outside. I’ve been here since day one.

Flamy Grant.

Sydney Valiente

Certainly, CHURCH is intentional in the way that it focuses on queer representation in the church and, as Flamy says, the experience that American churches put queer people through.

“I don’t want to call myself a prophet,” she explains. “But I really resonate with the stories of the prophets in the Bible. There were people who were Jews and Hebrews, and God called them to step forward and do some really weird radical with…” She pauses. “You have to look at me, and I won’t let you ignore the fact that we have some things to talk about.”

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Source: HIS Education