Fancy Hagood on His ‘Southern Identity’ and Fighting Rejection: ‘I Believe in My Grand Delusions’ (Exclusive)

Fancy Hagood likes Costco, loves The Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis, and he’s actually pleased with the “new chapter” of music he’s kicking off together with his newest single “Southern Sound,” out Oct. 4. 

“My dream was to be a rustic artist, and I used to be rapidly advised after I received to Nashville that being a queer nation artist wasn’t an choice. And so I put that dream on maintain for some time,” says Hagood, who then moved to Los Angeles to check out the pop scene.

However, “Miley Cyrus was not mendacity. It’s not a Nashville celebration on the market,” he quips.

So, Hagood rotated to essentially chase his lifelong aim.

“Being again in Nashville and creating with my pals, and being impressed by a lot change that is occurring, I actually determined I wished to get again to my unique dream and pursue why I moved to Nashville within the first place after I was 17,” he explains.

Nonetheless, he sees the irony in his love affair with nation music.

“What’s humorous is with my debut album [Southern Curiosity], I used to be actually, actually staunch on not labeling it as a rustic album, however then it ended up getting lots of nation play and lots of help from nation listeners,” he says. “And it was type of a sign to me that it was time for me to step up and be the change. I really feel like ‘Southern Sound’ is the right new starting and a brand new sound that I am leaning into confidently for the primary time.” 

Hagood grew up solely within the south, having been born in Georgia and raised in Arkansas, so his roots imply quite a bit to him regardless of how they’re generally at odds together with his id. 

“I am a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ group, and the one time I didn’t reside within the south was the time I used to be splitting time between Nashville and LA. Being Southern is such part of my id, and a lot of who I’m is wrapped up in how I used to be raised, and my household,” he says. “It is essential for me to speak about how a lot I like being from the place I am from, and the way a lot I like being who I’m. It is all the identical factor for me.”

As for the best way to reconcile these two elements of himself?

“I am delusional. That is how,” Hagood, 32, says with fun — however he means it.

“I am like a Actual Housewife. I consider in my grand delusions and I consider in myself. And I really feel actually proud to be nonetheless standing. Lots of people give up. Lots of people begin listening to the naysayers. When folks do not see me as palatable, I do not perceive it. When folks do not see me as marketable, it actually baffles me,” he says. “And perhaps I’ve had moments the place I type of believed it, however in the end, I simply consider in my dream, my imaginative and prescient, my music, myself.”

Hagood additionally credit his family and friends for serving to him pursue his desires: he’s happening tour with duo John and TJ, higher referred to as Brothers Osborne — and it simply so occurs that Sister Osborne, Natalie, is Hagood’s supervisor.

“She’s my platonic life associate. She’s my greatest good friend,” says Hagood. “The entire Osborne household has simply develop into really household to me. And the truth that John and TJ are taking an opportunity on me, and I am a queer unbiased artist and so they’re taking me out on tour? I believe it should be simply the very best tour I’ve ever been on.”

When Hagood isn’t busy on the street, he enjoys spending time at house in Nashville, the place he and his boyfriend, Jeremy, simply purchased a home. 

“It is actually great.  I am studying extra about myself each single day. I used to be single for 30 years and met Jeremy in 2021 after the toughest yr of my whole life,” Hagood says. “He is simply the largest present I’ve ever been given.” 

And Jeremy’s style in music actually doesn’t damage, both. He loves all issues nation, and Hagood says Jeremy even jokes now that Hagood has “stolen his aesthetic” together with his new camouflage merchandise and affinity for trucker hats. 

“Possibly he has rubbed off on me in that type of means, however I really feel like he simply brings out this different facet of me that I actually, actually love,” Hagood says. “‘Southern Sound’ is all about falling in like to the soundtrack of nation music, and I really feel like that is actually what’s occurring in my very own life and why [the song] regardless that we wrote it so way back, nonetheless feels prefer it has a lot life in it. I really feel like I am dwelling it once more.”