Fancy Hagood.Photo:Natalie Osborne
Natalie Osborne
Fancy Hagoodlikes Costco, lovesThe Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and he’s really proud of the “new chapter” of music he’s kicking off with his latest single “Southern Sound,” out Oct. 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 wasn’t an option. And so Iput that dream on holdfor a while,” says Hagood, who then moved to Los Angeles to try out the pop scene.
But, “Miley Cyruswas not lying. It is not a Nashville party out there,” he quips.
So, Hagood turned around to really chase his lifelong goal.
Still, he sees the irony in his love affair with country music.
“What’s funny iswith my debut album[Southern Curiosity], I was really, really staunch on not labeling it as a country album, but then it ended up getting a lot of country play and a lot of support from country listeners,” he says. “And it was kind of a signal to me that it was time for me to step up and be the change. I feel like ‘Southern Sound’ is the perfect new beginning and a new sound that I’m leaning into confidently for the first time.”
Natalie Osborn
Hagood grew up exclusively in the south, having been born in Georgia and raised in Arkansas, so his roots mean a lot to him despite how they’re sometimes at odds with his identity.
“I’m a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and the only time I did not live in the south was the time I was splitting time between Nashville and LA. Being Southern is such a part of my identity, and so much of who I am is wrapped up in how I was raised, and my family,” he says. “It’s important for me to talk about how much I love being from where I’m from, and how much I love being who I am. It’s all the same thing for me.”
As for how to reconcile those two parts of himself?
“I’m delusional. That’s how,” Hagood, 32, says with a laugh — but he means it.
“I’m like a Real Housewife. I believe in my grand delusions and I believe in myself. And I feel really proud to be still standing. A lot of people quit. A lot of people start listening to the naysayers. When people don’t see me as palatable, I don’t understand it. When people don’t see me as marketable, it really baffles me,” he says. “And maybe I’ve had moments where I kind of believed it, but ultimately, I just believe in my dream, my vision, my music, myself.”
Hagood also credits his friends and family for helping him pursue his dreams: he’s going on tour with duoJohn and TJ, better known as Brothers Osborne— and it just so happens that Sister Osborne, Natalie, is Hagood’s manager.
“She’s my platonic life partner. She’s my best friend,” says Hagood. “The whole Osborne family has just become truly 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 out on tour? I think it’s going to be just the best tour I’ve ever been on.”
When Hagood isn’t busy on the road, he enjoys spending time at home in Nashville, where he and his boyfriend, Jeremy, just bought a house.
“It’s really wonderful. I’m learning more about myself every single day. I was single for 30 years and met Jeremy in 2021 after the hardest year of my entire life,” Hagood says. “He’s just the biggest gift I’ve ever been given.”
And Jeremy’s taste in music certainly doesn’t hurt, either. He loves all things country, and Hagood says Jeremy even jokes now that Hagood has “stolen his aesthetic” with his new camouflage merchandise and affinity for trucker hats.
“Maybe he has rubbed off on me in that kind of way, but I feel like he just brings out this other side of me that I really, really love,” Hagood says. “‘Southern Sound’ is all about falling in love to the soundtrack of country music, and I feel like that’s really what’s happening in my own life and why [the song] even though we wrote it so long ago, still feels like it has so much life in it. I feel like I’m living it again.”
source: people.com
