No More Bystanders: Why It s Time for Country Music Fans to Step Up
No More Bystanders: Why It s Time for Country Music Fans to Step Up
With two bombshells in country on the same day - Morgan Wallen s racial slur and T.J. Osborne s coming out - many were exposed to the two sides of country that feel more at odds than ever
Jon Freeman, provided by
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First, there were the drafts of tweets that went unsent. Then there were the profanity-laced text messages to trusted friends. Finally, there were nerve-calming cooking videos on YouTube. Making some sense of the sadness and confusion I felt in the wake of the Morgan Wallen video took time. The disappointing revelation that country’s hottest new star had been caught on camera using a racist slur was quickly followed by the joyful coming out of Brothers Osborne frontman T.J. Osborne, stirring up even more emotions. As a country-music fan from small-town Alabama who is also gay, I found elements of both news stor
Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for CMA
6 Feb 2021
Several country artists have quickly come to support Brothers Osborne band member TJ Osborne after announcing he is gay.
Country stars including Dierks Bentley, Kacey Musgraves, Ty Herndon, Jordan Davis, Ryan Hurd, Jason Isbel, and more jumped on the bandwagon to lend Osborne their support for his announcement.
Osborne revealed his proclivity in a February 3 interview published by
Time magazine in which he insisted, “I’m ready to put this behind me.”
The
Stay a Little Longer singer told the magazine, “I’m very comfortable being gay. I find myself being guarded for not wanting to talk about something that I personally don’t have a problem with. That feels so strange.”