Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly What?

Before Brokeback Mountain there was Willie Nelson. Or to be more accurate, there was a 1981 song written by a man named Ned Sublette, who had Willy’s voice and style in mind when he composed it. Sublette lived next to an urban cowboy bar called Boots and Saddles on Christopher Street in New York City and was obviously heavily influenced by that experience as well as what it was like growing up New Mexico and “what it felt like to feel different as a teenager, and the culture at that time.”

Ned’s song was performed by others over the years, but more than twenty years after the original, and one year after the Brokeback Mountain film, the song took off with Willie Nelson performing and releasing it on Valentine’s Day, 2006. I realize that the some of the language isn’t up to date, but it’s empathetic as well as funny, and I just adore it. It’s called “Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other,” and just this year Orville Peck (pictured on the left above) collaborated with Willie Nelson to record a new version of the song, whose video you can watch here.

You might know, if you’ve met my brother Jeff, that he has more than once been told he looks like Willie Nelson. In fact, he cleverly got some young ladies back stage to see a band once because one of the roadies said, “No, these girls are fine, they’re with Willie here.”

What you might not know is that Jeff was one of my biggest supporters both growing up and later when I was finally figuring out some big things about myself. And if you haven’t yet put the pieces together, the theme this week in the middle of June has been about Pride. From Cher, to George Michael, to Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia” and the cast of RENT, these have all been songs that I think fit Pride month in a way that anyone can understand.

Jeff helped me to take some pride in more than one area of my life. And for that I honor and thank both my brother Jeff and his alter ego, Mr. Willie Nelson.