John Rich (country duo Big & Rich) Feels Awful For Anti-Gay Comment to Chely Wright

[Divine Discontent]

http://www.accesshollywood.com/john-rich-feels-awful-for-anti-gay-chely-wright-comment_article_31965
Video of her talking about the pistol to her mouth, at above link.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. --

Following Chely Wright’s announcement that she is gay, her friend and fellow country star John Rich, of country group Big and Rich, is speaking out about a comment he made to Chely many years ago that she said sent her into a tailspin.

Chely recently told Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson that a conversation she had with John 10 years ago about her sexuality was extremely hurtful and damanging.

“ said, ‘You’re not gay are you?! If you are, people won't have it. It’s sick, it’s deviant, it’s unacceptable to country music fans.’’ I said, ‘No, John, I’m not.’ He said, ‘Good, thank God.’ And that began a spiral for me,” the 39-year-old singer recalled. “I had a meltdown shortly after that.”

“I would never pass judgment on any friend of mine. I feel awful that, at this time in Chely’s life, my decade old comment – ‘Good, thank God’ – was taken the wrong way,” he told Access in a statement. “I was clumsily trying to express my relief that even a country boy like me had a one-in-a-million chance of having a beer with a woman as talented and attractive as Chely,” the statement continued. “For years after that conversation, Chely invited me to perform at charity events. In all that time, I wish she would have said something directly to me before the book’s publicity tour, especially since some of the comments attributed to me in the book are not mine.”

<snip>




http://blog.gactv.com/blog/2010/05/05/why-shes-out-chely-wright-chooses-honesty-over-fear/
“I got on my knees and I spoke out loud to God and I stopped praying for what I’d always prayed for, which was, ‘Help me find a way to figure out a way to still have my career and everything ,’” she said. “I changed my prayer. And my prayer was, ‘God, give me a moment’s peace.’ I got up off my knee, I said amen and I got my moment’s peace, and I got the understanding. I didn’t hear God’s voice, I didn’t see a guy in a robe, but I heard God say what he’d been whispering in my ear all along: ‘I expect one thing of you and that is to tell the truth.’”

Chely details her journey in the book, which coincides with a new album, Lifted Off The Ground. She’s able to convey her difficult story in part because she now feels some spiritual peace and resolution.

[katandmoon]

1. I've never head of John Rich, just as I've never heard of Chely Wright before now, and

boy am I glad. What a craven bigoted POS he is.

[Divine Discontent]

2. Before this broke, I knew the "Big & Rich" band, and turned it often. They are what you'd call

gutter hillbilly country rock. They have the song, 'Save a horse, ride a cowboy'.

I barely knew Chely's name. She was so depressed because of the nasty culture of country music she was in. I'm glad for her that she ignored that POS Rich, and found her will to live and be herself. I loved her line, "I didn’t hear God’s voice, I didn’t see a guy in a robe, but I heard God say what he’d been whispering in my ear all along: ‘I expect one thing of you and that is to tell the truth.’”

You just gotta tell these haters to go focus on their own damned lives, because everyone who's ever judged me for being Gay has had a more complicated (troubled) life than my own.

[sui generis]

3. "was taken the wrong way" ???

I can accept that people grow from ignorance to compassion but it sounds like he's still purty ignernt.

Cue theme from deliverance, and . . . . scene.

It's not like that fancy coat and multi-knuckle joolery he's sporting is SO GAY that even I wouldn't wear it in polite company and I have some party clothes that would make Elton John bitch slap me to the ground.

[foxfeet]

4. Umm, pics?

Oh, and you're absolutely right about Rich.

[Divine Discontent]

5. his "fancy coat"!

good catch... true, I look at that and thank, are we in Houston at the all-male review? He's a jerk. As long as she forgives him is what matters, I don't know if she's accepted his apology or not.

Show us pics of your pretty clothes! LOL.. (going off the 1st reply to your post)

[Lint Head]

6. This jerk went to a private Christian high school just down the street from us.

The school is basically all white and they make no bones about not liking homosexuality and it is whispered that they do not like blacks in there school. They promote the fact that they pray in school and say people should send there kids there because of these things.

He is a right wing prick that wrote an anthem to John McCain called "Raisin' McCain".

[PM Martin]

18. A prick indeed.

Seems he fits right in with the kkkountry kkkrowd.

[tbyg52]

7. Running for cover now that gay is becoming more acceptable. Jerk. nt

[AzNick]

8. Is Tim next?

Come one, Tim, come out (wishing!)

[TriMera]

9. I was kinda hoping it would be Faith.:-)

[AzNick]

10. I have to admit a huge crutch on Tim McGraw

And he registers pretty high on the 'dar :)

[Divine Discontent]

11. if he ever came out.. back off bichuzzz, he's mine! LOL

j/k...

not really.


LOL

:hug:

[AzNick]

13. Yeah yeah

[Evasporque]

12. His jacket is hot...he should come out....

He could be the first Gay Cowboy Country Dance-Pop Star....

[Metric System]

14. Chely Wright doesn't seem to buy it:

"I think there was such a backlash when he kind of took a shot at gays a few years ago, and he did some backpedaling. I think he sees what it feels like to take on the gays, and he didn’t like it. And I think he may not want to take this on. So he may say, “Um, I love Chely. I can love the sinner, hate the sin.” He may say that. I don’t have to believe it."

http://music-mix.ew.com/2010/05/05/chely-wright-comes-out-qa/

I was a bit cynical about her at first (the coming out timed with the CD and book release) but I think she's gained me as a new fan, especially after reading the linked interview with EW.com. Reading the interview I was disappointed to discover that Brad Paisley is a hardcore Christian who may not be OK with the gays. His wife campaigned for Obama so I assumed maybe he was progressive too. Damn.

[Divine Discontent]

15. thanks for the update - and the new about Brad. :( hopefully he's a Christian who loves Gays the

same way he loves Straight people. I am tired of the archaic mindset tossed around that God hates people being Gay... He made us and the scriptures when studied show such. gaychristian101.com

[davidinalameda]

16. sounds like he apologized

what's the problem

[Sebastian Doyle]

17. Fred Phelps must be getting nervous

Chely Wright is the second Lesbian singer from Kansas to come out in recent weeks (Christian singer Jennifer Knapp was the first). And of course there's Melissa Etheridge, who kicked down that closet door several years ago.

I suppose the next question is how long it takes Pat Robertson to blame her for the recent flood in Nashville.