Photography Leigh Keily
In 2010, feeling that the record industry was not something that would be receptive to a gay man releasing honest music about his life, as he had done unsuccessfully for ten years with his band The Czars, Michigan-born John Grant released his first solo album Queen of Denmark and everything changed. Met with universal acclaim, he found fans in Elton John and Sinéad O’Connor, MOJO magazine dubbed the album an ‘instant classic’ and then made it their album of the year. What was so impressive about the debut was, alongside its touching and playfully catchy melodies, was its emotional honesty about his struggles with depression, low self-esteem, addiction and homophobia. It was uncompromisingly, unselfconsciously gay in a way that felt brand new. He sang of love between men, not just sex. TC and Honeybear is a song about two men, childlike, lushly romantic and rich. Caramel is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written and performed by a man about another man. Jesus Hates Faggots is an angry song about his upbringing. Expressing what it means to be alive whoever you are, he engaged legions of gay and straight fans.