Country singer Sam Williams is opening up about his sexuality for the first time — with a sweet music video to go along with it.
Earlier this month, the singer released a music video for his song “Tilted Crown,” which sees him struggling with the generational pressures of his identity (he’s the son of Hank Williams, Jr.) and kissing his real-life boyfriend.
He opened up about the decision to bring his personal life into the spotlight in that way during a recent episode of Proud Radio with Hunter Kelly, admitting: “I felt like I was promoting invisibility, like I wasn’t being visible and wasn’t being myself. And I just thought it was the perfect opportunity to just show who I was.”
Williams further explained that although he has been out in his personal life and with his label, he hadn’t really talked about his sexuality publicly before — until now.
“I identify as gay,” he clarified, “and I’ve never said that to anybody else… And it is scary, but it feels good.”
Although more LGBTQ+ country singers have slowly been coming out in recent years, being so open about being gay in that world is still a rarity, and Williams hopes his honesty will help kids in the next generation who might be struggling with who they are.
“If I was a kid, and I was younger, and I saw somebody like myself doing an interview like this and just saying that, ‘This is who I am and I’m proud to be who I am,’ that would have been impactful for me,” he said.
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