Willie Nelson Has Gay Cowboy Fever

Obsessive chronicler of all things Brokebackian Towleroad notes today that Willie Nelson, whose cover of "He Was A Friend of Mine" accompanies the film's closing credits, has recorded yet another ode to rancher-on-rancher romance: the somewhat less subtly titled "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other." It premiered on a very confused Howard Stern's show this morning (audio available courtesy of The Malcontent) and was made available for purchase on iTunes. The Dallas Morning News reports:

On "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other," the Texas country icon sings about love among men on the range. Available exclusively at iTunes today, the song aims to show Mr. Nelson's support for gays, particularly to conservative country-music fans.

"The song's been in the closet for 20 years," Mr. Nelson said in a prepared statement. It was written in 1981 by Lubbock-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette.

"The timing's right for it to come out. I'm just opening the door."

While we applaud Nelson's brave stand for gay rights in the very homophobic and conservative milieu of country music, we were nonetheless left scratching our heads at some of the song's lyrics ("What did you think all them/Saddles and boots was about?" Uh, don't you need that stuff to, like, ride horses?) Still, Nelson deserves a supportive pat on the back for his well-meaning gesture, though his handlers might want to find a sensitive way to discourage the enthusiastically open-minded outlaw from going through with his next planned album of original material, Lasso Me A Rainbow.

• Willie Nelson Sings of Gays on the Range [Towleroad]
• Willie opens closet with 'Cowboys' [DallasNews.com]
• Not So Secretly Fond of Willie [The Malcontent]

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