Gay Country Music Star Patrick Haggerty Dies at 78
Patrick Haggerty, the leader of what is oftentimes referred to as the first proudly queer country music group Lavender Country, has died. He was 78 years old.
The band’s official Instagram account released a statement confirming Haggerty’s death on Tuesday, November 1.
“This morning, we lost a great soul. RIP Patrick Haggerty,” the post read, alongside a photo of the singer performing. “After suffering a stroke several weeks ago, he was able to spend his final days at home surrounded by his kids and lifelong husband, JB. Love, and solidarity.”
View this post on Instagram
Born on September 27, 1944 and raised on a farm near Port Angeles, Washington, Haggerty was the sixth of 10 children and the son to a diary farmer and a homemaker. He says he knew he was gay from an early age and credited his parents for being supportive.
Haggerty went on to join the Peace Corps in his early 20s but was kicked out for his sexual identity. He then found family in Seattle’s LGBTQ community, who encouraged him to record an album. That eventually led him to the band.
Lavender Country, which consists of members Haggerty, Michael Carr, Eve Morris, and Robert Hammerstrom, released their self-titled, debut album in 1973. The album included songs like “Come Out Singing” and “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears,” making it the first openly gay-themed album in country music history.
View this post on Instagram
Haggerty, who never attempted to tamp down or hide his queerness, said in a CNN interview that he wrote Lavender Country as a statement to the music industry, as he refused to conform to the heteronormative standards of the time.
“When we made Lavender Country, we weren’t stupid,” he said. “No genre was going to take stock of anything that I had to say.”
Later in 2014, the band had the opportunity to re-release album. Then this past February, nearly 50 years later, Haggerty released a second Lavender Country album titled Blackberry Rose.
View this post on Instagram
In the decades between the first and second albums, Haggerty devoted his life to activism. A staunch socialist who often called himself a “screaming Marxist bitch,” he advocated for HIV/AIDS awareness, LGBTQ causes, and the civil rights of Black Americans. He had two children with his husband and retired to a town across the Puget Sound, his musical dreams long dashed.
“I filled up my life with all kinds of interesting and engaging things that were meaningful to me that didn’t have anything to do with music,” he told CNN.
After re-releasing Lavender County, Haggerty was thrust into an industry he long believed had shut him out. As more people heard the album and learned of his story, his contributions to country music were acknowledged and appreciated more widely.
View this post on Instagram
In 2016, Haggerty starred in a documentary short about his life and legacy, and his music sound tracked an original ballet performed by a company in San Francisco. He even performed the songs he’d written more than 40 years earlier with new gay country stars like Orville Peck and Trixie Mattel, who’ve both found considerable success for integrating their identities into their acts.
Toward the end, Haggerty says he never aspired to reach country stardom in a traditional sense, but has no regrets about the winding road it took to get him there.
“In secret, I wanted to be a hambone all along, I admit it,” he previously told CNN. “But now I get to use my hambone-edness to foment social change and struggle for a better world.”
Photos Courtesy @lavendercountryofficial
What's Your Reaction?
