Country Singer Chely Wright Reveals She's Gay
For more than a week, blogs and commentators were speculating on which gay celebrity was going to announce her homosexuality in People magazine. Finally, the mystery was revealed to be country singer Chely Wright.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Unidentified Man #2: Well, whatever it is, she's a really big star and she's gay.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW)
MONTAGNE: Selena Simmons-Duffin has more on the country music star.
SELENA SIMMONS: Chely Wright is 39 years old and has been making albums for nearly two decades. This week she's publishing a new memoir. She's got a new album, a promotional tour and a documentary about her is set to hit theaters in the fall - leaving some asking: Is this a publicity stunt?
CHELY WRIGHT: Well, I can't put a memoir about my coming out out before I come out. Can I? Probably not.
SIMMONS: That's Chely Wright.
HOWARD BRAGMAN: We're very realistic.
SIMMONS: And that's her publicist, Howard Bragman. He's been managing celebrities who want to come out of the closet for about 20 years.
BRAGMAN: If Chely Wright were to sit on "The Today Show" and say, hey, I'm Chely Wright and I'm gay, they'd go, wow, that's great. Who are you? You know...
SIMMONS: Bragman decided to take the opportunity and build the suspense. So instead of saying who are you, audiences would say, oh, you're the mystery gay celebrity.
BRAGMAN: It's a longer runway, if you will.
SIMMONS: But just in case you're still wondering who she is, maybe you remember this song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SINGLE WHITE FEMALE")
WRIGHT: (Singing) ...single white female just looking for a man like you.
SIMMONS: In her new album, "Lifted Off the Ground," she's singing, yes, a very different tune.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
WRIGHT: (Singing) And who's going to end up holding your hand? A beautiful woman or a tall handsome man...
SIMMONS: Wright says her experiences with homophobia in the country music world convinced her to stay closeted throughout her career.
WRIGHT: There's a reason no one's ever done this before me. They want you to be anything but gay. They would rather you be a drug addict, a wife beater, anything but this.
SIMMONS: So to the critics that say this is just a stunt, Howard Bragman says get a grip.
BRAGMAN: Gee, that's a real career maker in country music, to come out of the closet and put your fan base at risk.
SIMMONS: Still, he adds...
BRAGMAN: What a lot of the attention we're trying to get will hopefully do is help new people discover Chely and her amazing voice.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
WRIGHT: (Singing) Dare to different, dare to be true...
SIMMONS: For NPR News, I'm Selena Simmons-Duffin.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
WRIGHT: (Singing) ...like we've always done, across from the wreckage and walk in the sun, fanning the flames (unintelligible)...
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
Copyright © 2010 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.