k.d. lang says radio stations wouldn’t play her music after coming out
K.D. Lang accepts an award onstage during the 2018 Americana Music Honors and Awards. (Erika Goldring/Getty Images for Americana Music Association)
Canadian singer-songwriter k.d. lang has said that coming out in the 90s sometimes made it difficult for her to have a successful career.
The Grammy Award-winning artist said in an interview with MOJO Magazine that being openly gay meant that many radio stations wouldn’t play her music.
“There was prejudice against my sexuality for sure. And resistance. I never got played on the radio. I still don’t get played on the radio, but now it’s musical, and back then I’d say it was more about my sexuality.
“I was an anomaly that they used to modernise country but I wasn’t fully embraced. Though in fairness I didn’t want to be embraced by the world. I loved being a freak of nature in this really traditional world.”
lang said she was seen as an anomaly as many people weren’t as open to the idea of sexuality and sexual identities at the time.
k.d. lang performs onstage at Stagecoach: California’s Country Music Festival. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
“There were bomb threats to my record company”
The ‘Constant Craving’ singer publically came out as a lesbian in June 1992 in an article in The Advocate following a controversial ‘Meat Stinks’ campaign.
The PETA campaign saw lang advocate for a vegetarian lifestyle, with many of America’s cattle country radio stations banning her music in response.
“It wasn’t the precipice of what made me change genres, but it was certainly one of the impetuses,” she added.
“There were bomb threats to my record company in the States. They would drive tractors to block the entrances of shows. Two years later I came out, and in some ways, like you light a fire to put out a fire it extinguished the flames. But coming out was a positive experience to me, I mean publicly. I came out to my mum in my early-mid teens. And all my record company people at Sire were gay pretty much.”
The interview comes as the country and pop star announced dates for a UK and Ireland tour, which will take place in July.
