Lavender Country Funeral

August 28, 2024 8:46 AM

Country singer Patrick Haggerty was a stranger to me—yet attending his memorial meant everything. Patrick Haggerty is my favorite kind of icon. He was legendary to some, and unknown to most. His fame came by releasing the first openly gay country record in 1973 titled Lavender Country. The record was released, not through a major or even an independent label, but rather through Seattle’s Gay Community Social Services at a pressing of just 1,000 copies. According to Haggerty, “we sold them however we could. It was a community effort. We did some public stuff but it was really mostly a matter of word of mouth. People discovered it and turned the next person on to it.”
posted by bq (7 comments total)

Absolutely lovely, thanks.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 10:12 AM on August 28, 2024 [4 favorites]

I got to see him a month or so before he passed, and it was an amazing show. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was impossible not to love that man and his passion for making the world a better place, however he could. It was a kind of sincerity you don't see every day.
posted by whm at 10:46 AM on August 28, 2024 [3 favorites]

I had the privilege of interviewing Haggerty in 2019. He was a great guy, and super talented.
posted by vibrotronica at 1:36 PM on August 28, 2024 [5 favorites]

Thank you so much for sharing! I love his embrace of the irreverent side of country.
posted by Emmy Rae at 1:42 PM on August 28, 2024 [2 favorites]

I am very proud to have called Pat my friend.

He was so full of brightness, and such an uncompromising fighter for for justice and good. And he made everyone around him feel capable of glowing just at as brightly, and of fighting just as hard.

(I met him through one of his family members. That person and I eventually fell out, but I never stopped adoring Pat.

I mean ... who could? Who could possibly?)
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 3:20 PM on August 28, 2024 [9 favorites]

Wow. I love this:

“The day after the Stonewall riots happened, I came out — by myself — in Missoula. I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I heard the call, and I jumped out.”

And this:

“People ask why I chose country as a genre to do gay stuff. Well, in 1973 it didn’t matter what genre you chose. You were on the outs anyway, so what did it matter?”

I love that he went into traditional country, and in the early '70s. What a brave and interesting life. Thank you for letting me know about him.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:20 PM on August 28, 2024 [7 favorites]

vibrotronica, that's a lovely interview. Thanks for sharing. I love this part:

"His father bought him his first guitar at age nine. 'He was an unusual man for his time and place. ... He really looked like a bumpkin, but that was a disguise. … He never denigrated me or put me down. He never said I can’t do that, even though I was doing drag and wearing blonde, bailing-twine wigs, and singing show tunes, and dancing on his tractors — and being completely incompetent at farming.'”

What a sweet portrait of a child and his father.
posted by hydra77 at 7:20 AM on August 29, 2024 [1 favorite]