# Hard-rocking, womanizing (allegedly) musicians... who are gay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 24, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608 "2009-03-24T17:48:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/41 "2009-03-25T12:12:35Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > Kalhoun, you might want to sit down. I have something important to tell you about the Indigo Girls. Ok, that one I knew about. But the Dusty Springfield thing…I’ll go to my grave shaking my head about that one. Sheesh! I’m so out of touch. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/42 "2009-03-25T13:07:36Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > (At one point she actually admitted being gay for attention. Not such a hot idea, imho) It worked for Bowie. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/43 "2009-03-25T14:18:05Z")
I’m more shocked that ANYONE would be surprised if Paul Stanley were gay. The second I saw and heard him speaking, not singing, without makeup, I thought it. I may be wrong, but it seems obvious… Joe ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/44 "2009-03-25T14:53:15Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > But the Dusty Springfield thing…I’ll go to my grave shaking my head about that one. **Vanessa Kensington** : You know, I sometimes forget that you’ve missed out on the last thirty years: fall of the Berlin Wall… first female British prime minister… the end of apartheid… **Austin Powers** : Yeah, and I can’t believe Liberace was gay! I mean, women \*loved \*him! I didn’t see that one coming… ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/45 "2009-03-25T15:32:41Z")
I know absolutely nothing about Paul Stanley’s personal life. But I DID have the vinyl “Kiss Alive” album back in 1975, and in the liner notes, Stanley boasted of having countless lovers of both sexes. Was that true? I dunno… but he published it for all his fans to see. Not something most guys would have been inclined to do just as a lark, in those days. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/46 "2009-03-25T15:34:59Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > No on the second one. Townshend has made some ambiguous remarks in the past, but when pressed on the issue he says he had some kind of limited sexual experiences with other men in the '60s but outright denied being bisexual. This [2002 Rolling Stone interview](http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/petetownshend/articles/story/5939827/pete_townshend_the_rs_interview) covers the subject in some detail, but here are the most relevant snippets: Those really seem to fall more into what Dan Savage describes as “things drunk straight boys can be talked into”. Testosterone and alcohol mixed together has caused many an otherwise thoroughly heterosexual male to do things he’d never otherwise do. I think Townshend was digging into his own past and trying to be ruthlessly honest with and about himself. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/47 "2009-03-25T15:36:40Z")
> [@hammos1](#): > > **Vanessa Kensington** : You know, I sometimes forget that you’ve missed out on the last thirty years: fall of the Berlin Wall… first female British prime minister… the end of apartheid… > **Austin Powers** : Yeah, and I can’t believe Liberace was gay! I mean, women \*loved \*him! I didn’t see that one coming… Ouch. This hurts. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/48 "2009-03-25T15:37:28Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I know absolutely nothing about Paul Stanley’s personal life. > > But I DID have the vinyl “Kiss Alive” album back in 1975, and in the liner notes, Stanley boasted of having countless lovers of both sexes. 1975 was the height of [“bisexual chic”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisexual_chic#Emergence_of_bisexual_chic). ---
**Author:** ![Minnie\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Minnie\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minnie_Luna)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/49 "2009-03-25T16:04:33Z")
George Michael (while not hard-rocking) was rumored to have had relationships with women like Brooke Shields and Kathy Jeung, the woman in the “I Want Your Sex” video. Now he is openly homosexual, to the dismay of many a woman. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/50 "2009-03-25T17:25:27Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > Hard-rocking, womanizing (allegedly) musicians… who are gay? The members of Insane Clown Posse, supposedly. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/51 "2009-03-25T20:12:14Z")
A guy I used to know claimed that he was in the front at a Tool concert and was approached by someone who was with the band and invited backstage to “party.” He accepted and was surprised to find out that “party” meant boy on boy sex, which he politely declined and all was cool. I have no idea if he was BSing me but he seemed believable enough. For all I know Tool (or at least one member) are openly gay and therefore don’t fit here. ---
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/52 "2009-03-25T20:56:44Z")
I don’t necessarily think they had a reputation for womanizing, but I was surprised to read (on Wikipedia) that both Bob Mould and Grant Hart from 80s hard (alternative) rocking band Husker Du were gay. Although apparently they were never involved with each other. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/53 "2009-03-25T23:28:09Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Those really seem to fall more into what Dan Savage describes as “things drunk straight boys can be talked into”. Testosterone and alcohol mixed together has caused many an otherwise thoroughly heterosexual male to do things he’d never otherwise do. I think Townshend was digging into his own past and trying to be ruthlessly honest with and about himself. And, as he says in the interview, in the '60s they tried everything. 🙂 Townshend is, if anything, open to a fault in interviews. I think he did want to give the most honest answer to the question and neither deny past experiences nor claim a label that he didn’t feel was a good fit. There are some sources out there saying that Townshend has been openly bisexual for years, but it seems to be mostly the result of one rather homoerotic solo song (“Rough Boys”, 1980) and a rambling 1989 interview with Tim White where he said he had a strong feminine side and knew what it felt like to be a woman. Aside from whatever “experimenting” he may have done in the '60s, it’s also known that Townshend has a number of gay friends and that early in his career he briefly shared an apartment with The Who’s gay manager Kit Lambert. So some assumptions were made by the tabloid press, and even some more serious publications. The rumors continued to spread in part because Townshend didn’t want to make a big deal of issuing a special public statement _denying_ being bisexual. In a 1994 interview with _Playboy_ he explains that he thought it was insulting to real gay/bi people to give the impression that being called bisexual was an offensive accusation that needed to be strongly denied. But when asked directly he’s always said that he isn’t gay or bi. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/54 "2009-03-25T23:49:01Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > Oh, god, the Indigo Girls…I was living in Atlanta when they were a fairly popular local act, but had not yet broken nationally. I had heard a song of theirs on one of the radio stations’ “local Band” moments and liked them. I wonder what song outed them, though? There’s a new band called **Boyskout** , and their first single “Spotlight” is terribly innocuous; no hints that they’re anything but a band with a female singer. I listened to a few more of their songs, and the _only_ “hey, wait!” lyric is from the song “Suicide.” The lyric being “She laughs when she says she’s so turned on.” That’s only a mildly explicit remark, but I did wonder why would she be telling the singer she’s turned on, even in passing? So it turns out if you google the band you get a lot of hits for _lesbian quartet_… ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/55 "2009-03-26T00:33:47Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Dusty _Springfield?_ What the fuck! Well, if the only man who could ever reach her was the son of a preacher man, what does that leave her? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/56 "2009-03-26T01:03:36Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > Wiki isn’t a good source for that sort of thing. Perhaps not, but it does feature a [list.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gay,_lesbian_or_bisexual_people) ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/57 "2009-03-26T03:33:22Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > Rob Halford probably surprised some people, and others not at all. The general consensus I’ve seen around the 'Net is, “Halford came out, to the surprise of absolutely nobody”. As Wikipedia puts it, “… but it came as little surprise to fans as rumours had been circulating for over five years.” Longer than that. He came out in 1998, but I heard the rumors as early as 1983. I mean, come on, those stage clothes weren’t biker leathers. Bikers don’t dress like that. His stage clothes were influenced more by the Folsom Street Fair than Sturgis. I do think it’s funny that when somebody like George Michael or Clay Aiken is revealed to be gay, theybecome the butt of jokes, but when the Metal God comes out, it’s like “Eh, whatever. Dude rocks.” Maybe that’s it — in metal the only thing that matters is “Does it rock?” ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/58 "2009-03-26T03:54:22Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > I do think it’s funny that when somebody like George Michael or Clay Aiken is revealed to be gay, theybecome the butt of jokes… They weren’t the butt of jokes before coming out? Edit- Maybe we should say ‘target’ of jokes?😃 ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/59 "2009-03-26T07:07:12Z")
> [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > Really? Never heard that one. Though he does sing an awful lot about boys in leather. [quote=“mr.jp, post:22, topic:490608”] Hmm, this got me thinking, is a disproportionate number of female musicians lesbian/bi? In my CD collection it might be something like 1/3 Tracy Chapman Janis Joplin Joan Jett Dusty Springfield Skin Sinead O’Conner[/QUOTE Janis was about as bi as a person can be. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608/60 "2009-03-26T07:34:33Z")
> [@DLuxN8R-13](#): > > Janis was about as bi as a person can be. That’s what I said? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hard-rocking-womanizing-allegedly-musicians-who-are-gay/490608.md?page=4)