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Nelson Releases Homage to Gay Cowboys

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Country music outlaw Willie Nelson sang "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" and "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" more than 25 years ago. He released a very different sort of cowboy anthem this Valentine's Day.

"Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)" may be the first gay cowboy song by a major recording artist. But it was written long before this year's Oscar-nominated "Brokeback Mountain" made gay cowboys a hot topic.

Available exclusively through iTunes, the song features choppy Tex-Mex style guitar runs and Nelson's deadpan delivery of lines like, "What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?" and "Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out."

The song, which debuted Tuesday on Howard Stern's satellite radio show, was written by Texas-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette in 1981. Sublette said he wrote it during the "Urban Cowboy" craze and always imagined Nelson singing it.

Someone passed a copy of the song to Nelson back in the late 1980s and, according to Nelson's record label, Lost Highway, he recorded it last year at his Pedernales studio in Texas.

Nelson has appeared in several Western movies and sings "He Was a Friend of Mine" on the "Brokeback Mountain" soundtrack.

Rhinestone Cowboy was pretty gay.

I wanna go two steppin',
With a good lookin' big black buck,
I want him to come and pick me up in his Chevrolet pick-up truck,
And when we're on the dance floor his hat will rise high above,
It's interracial cowboy homo kind of love.
--"Cowboy Love" - Rev. Horton Heat

Talk about a load of compromisin'

I can't wait until I have kids. Instead of thinking pirates and ninjas and robots are the hot shit, they're going to be all about the gay cowboys.

One more potential reason I am glad I've had all the kids I was intended.