by peter galvin
“I wish we could have a gay male country star,” says a typically irreverent Laura Bell Bundy when talking about her kinship with the gay men who helped shape her career as a singer and performer. “Until then, I’m the closest gay male country artist you’re going to find!” Turning serious, Bundy explains that the fearlessness that led her to buck Nashville trends with her new album Achin’ and Shakin’ came partly from witnessing the struggles of her gay friends to live without having to conforming to anyone else’s ideas of how to live.
“I understand that struggle,” she says. “I’ve never really found a place where I completely fit in, and I’m happy about that. I never needed to be the homecoming queen. I’ve always done things my own way.”
Bundy is certainly blazing a path of individuality with Achin’ and Shakin’, her Mercury Records debut release. The singer-songwriter has bypassed the tried-and-true Music Row approach usually taken on country albums and instead created a bold concept album that is essentially two separate albums within one project. The album’s title aptly describes the project’s division: Achin’ is a collection of slow and sultry country songs, and Shakin’ is a group of sassy songs that are equal parts humor, confidence and attitude. It’s no surprise that the Lexington, Kentucky-born Bundy is shattering the usual industry formulas because nothing about her entertainment career has been normal.
Like two of her idols Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton, she traveled the musical highway that spans from Nashville to Broadway. She originated the lead role of Elle Woods in the Broadway musical Legally Blonde, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. She also originated the role of Amber Von Tussle in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Hairspray and played Glinda in the smash hit Wicked. Prior to that, at age 9, she originated the role of Tina Denmark in the successful off-Broadway production Ruthless!, The Musical!, for which she received the Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk nominations.
Here, the singer talks about her journey from Broadway to Nashville, her “gay sense of humor,” and how she got her country music roots.
The Rage Monthly: Tell me about the progression of your career from Broadway to country music. How did this come about?
Laura Bell Bundy: I kinda think that it was less of a segue than everything happening at one time. I’m from Kentucky, and I grew up listening to a lot of country music. My grandfather was a radio DJ, and he had a large collection of country songs. My mom was a big fan of Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn, and we also listened to a lot of countrypolitan, which has been a big influence on this album. And my father is from Muscle Shoals, so I learned about Southern soul music from him. All of that has inspired the combination of country and soul that you hear on this record.
Rage: But career-wise, you started doing theatre first.
LBB: Yes, when I was a young kid, I moved to New York to do theatre. I was fortunate enough to be in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at 9 years old. Then, I was in Ruthless! The Musical, which became a cult show in the gay community. Britney Spears and Natalie Portman were my understudies. But then I moved back to Kentucky to be normal and go to high school. After doing a show with drag queens and being raised by the two gay men who composed the show, I was having an identity crisis.
Rage: I know you have actually put an album out before Achin’ and Shakin’ called Looking for a Place Already Gone.
LBB: Yes, after I did Wicked on Broadway, about six months before Legally Blonde, I put out a country album independently. I missed writing and singing country music. I called my style “Y’allternative.” I’m happy with that album as far as it being a jumping off point for me. But I’d like to think of Achin’ and Shakin’ as my first album. I devoted a year and a half to this, and it’s the culmination of all of my experiences and the emotions I’ve always felt.
Rage: What was the idea behind making a “two-sided” album—half of it “Achin’” and the half of it “Shakin’”?
LBB: The “Achin’” side is traditional country meets soul ballads. Tammy Wynette meets Norah Jones and Ray Charles. It’s for when you’re in a reflective mood, like when you’re trying to drown your sorrows. The songs on the “Shakin’” side you can really dance to, and they have more of a sassiness and a sense of humor.
The two styles represent the different parts of me. I’m not bipolar, but I have both a crazy wild side and a more reflective side that really likes to get to the source of my pain. I wrote or co-wrote every song on the album except one, so they really come from my own personal experience.
Rage: You have a sizable gay fan base from your Broadway and Off-Broadway work. Why do you think gay people are drawn to you and your work?
LBB: I think I have a gay sense of humor—it’s off-the-cuff, it’s kitschy, it’s campy. Maybe that’s because gay men wrote almost everything that has ever been written for me. The most creative people in my life have been gay people. It was gay men who taught me to sing and to hone my talent. It began when I was doing Ruthless! off-Broadway when I was 10 years old. The show was very campy. But even before that—when I was 8, my favorite movie was Hairspray.
And of course, I loved all of the films that are iconic to gay men: All About Eve, The Bad Seed, Mommie Dearest. Overall, there’s just something about the gay experience—particularly coming out of the closet to live life, as you really are—that I totally relate to.
Rage: How so?
LBB: Gay people have taught me there there’s really no “right” way to live—it’s all okay. That’s helped to bring me to the place I’m at now where I’m not afraid of anything anymore. I’m the most fearless I’ve ever been. It makes me really happy that my music is being marketed to the gay community. It’s like I’m getting my own coming-out party.
