Vocalist/singer-songwriter/ drag queen Flamy Grant welcomes new album “CHURCH”

Flamy Grant – powerhouse vocalist, songwriter and acclaimed drag queen – blends folk, gospel and roots with theatrical storytelling. Her 2022 debut Bible Belt Baby, garnered international attention when it reached the #1 spot on the iTunes Christian Charts after a self-proclaimed MAGA preacher disparaged her online

It’s no accident that Flamy’s drag name is an homage to Amy Grant, the undisputed queen of Christian music and 90s chart-topping pop artist. Much of Flamy’s music centers on the queer spiritual journey, telling stories of resilience and recovery from religious trauma in a world where LGBTQ+ people are frequently ignored by, harmed in, or ejected from religious spaces. With a bold lip, a big lash, and a blistering voice, Flamy drags audiences to a soulful, uplifting church of her own making.

Flamy’s 2022 debut Bible Belt Baby, garnered international attention when it reached the #1 spot on the iTunes Christian Charts. Her music has over 750,000 streams on Spotify, Apple, and Amazon music. A powerhouse vocalist and intrepid songwriter who blends folk, gospel, and roots, Flamy drags you into a therapeutic, theatrical mix of storytelling and song.

 

What gave you the idea to blend all these different genres like folk and gospel with drag?

RuPaul always says drag doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are. Drag is whatever you bring to it, and I happen to be a singer-songwriter who grew up in a super religious family where I was only allowed to listen to Christian music. Before starting drag during the early days of pandemic, I had been playing music in church for 20+ years. I simply brought who I am to my drag artistry, and it’s been a roller coaster ever since.

Who were some of you idols growing up?

Besides the obvious — Amy Grant, who is still my absolute favorite — I started listening to a lot of female songwriters in high school. Lilith Fair was a big deal, and artists like Sarah McLachlan, Tracy Chapman, and Sheryl Crow captivated me. My favorite songwriter to this day is Natalie Merchant. There’s no one finer at the craft. Outside of music, I’ve always been drawn to confident, funny, larger-than-life women like Molly Shannon, Whoopi Goldberg, and Sandra Bullock.

Tell us about CHURCH

I can’t think of anything that’s had a bigger influence in my life than church. Having been raised in the Bible Belt by a radically conservative, evangelical family, my life revolved around the business of church. I went to a Christian K-12 school, attended Christian college, and one of my first jobs as an adult was as a worship leader for a mega church in Sparks, NV. From there, I went on to plant a nondenominational church in San Diego, work for a Methodist church in St. Louis, and then ended up being a worship leader for a progressive, LGBTQ+-affirming congregation back in San Diego for 8 years, right through the pandemic.

Whether I like it or not (and those feelings often vacillate), church has shaped me. But I have also shaped the church. On the micro level, as someone who was a professional “church maker” for 20+ years of my life working with local congregations, and now, perhaps, on a slightly more macro level as the world’s first Christian chart-topping drag queen. I don’t have a big head about it (maybe just big hair), but it’s a true thing that the moment my album hit #1 on iTunes last year, countless conservative Christian talking heads couldn’t resist talking about what it meant for a drag queen to occupy that position in what they saw as “their” territory.

What so many of them failed to understand is that I am a direct result of 40 years of “their” work. Flamy Grant exists because I know this world intimately. I was not just a consumer of Christian culture — I was making it. And that’s exactly what I’m continuing to do with this record. CHURCH continues the themes I started in Bible Belt Baby, exploring my own experiences with religious trauma and liberation from oppressive, toxic theology, but it also goes deeper. What does it mean to be a Christian? To bear the name of Jesus Christ? What kind of culture does church create, what kind of people does it export into the world?

I have a lot of conflicting feelings about the role church plays in America, but one thing I know for sure is that after 40 years of being deeply committed to the organizing of this thing we call faith, I have a few things to say about it. Or sing, rather. If I had to sum it up, CHURCH is a spiritual experience, a prophetic vision, and a reckoning. It’s also some damn good music, if I may say so.

What’s the most representative track on the record and why?

This is an impossible question to answer! I’m incredibly proud of these songs, but if I have to point to one, it’s the closing track, “If You Ever Leave.” Musically, it’s exactly what I want to be making. The Nashville players and my producer absolutely knocked the production out of the park. But lyrically, it also serves as a bit of a thesis statement for the record, which is simply this: if I’m going to spend my precious life in service to a spiritual organization, the burden of proof is on that organization to demonstrate that both it and the God it claims to serve are able to love better than I can. I have no use for a deity or his church that can’t love people more completely than I, in my simple human state, can.

What kind of influence did Amy Grant have on you?

It’s the quintessential gay kid diva crush. I was obsessed growing up. Every note and lyric of her albums Unguarded, Heart in Motion, House of Love, and Behind the Eyes live rent-free in my mind. But more importantly, I look to her as someone who has been through the fire — multiple times — and has always responded with grace, composure, confidence, and joy. To see an Amy Grant concert today is the most healing, full-circle experience for me because not only are her songs the soundtrack to my life, but I get to watch a woman on stage in her era of wisdom and openness, welcoming absolutely everyone to her table. She’s one of my heroes, and I hope she is honored by my little drag homage to her incredible life’s work.

What were some stories of resilience you were told or experienced that kept you inspired?

Leslie Jordan is my favorite example of queer resilience. We all know him as the hilarious, tiny, Southern-as-hell character actor who went toe-to-toe with Karen Walker and made endearing, hilarious Instagram videos that collectively got us through pandemic, but his life was full of complicated, heavy, heart-wrenching moments. I can’t recommend his memoirs enough. Whether he was stubbornly facing down the AIDS crisis by being present for strangers during their transition at the end of life, facing down his own demons of addiction, or being a hot-headed vigilante against homophobia, Leslie represents the kind of life I want to live: embracing all the parts of yourself—good, bad, funny, sad—and holding onto hope in the face of hate and hardship. He was singing hymns up to the day he died, and no one was gonna tell him he couldn’t be exactly who he was while he sang them. What a gift he was to us.

Are you getting any kind of backlash from the Christian music community for being so unorthodox or what? 

Yes, I get plenty of backlash. And I’m grateful for every single podcast, article, and social media comment that’s aimed at taking me down. They’ll never learn that’s exactly what fuels me to be better, louder, gayer, and more proud of who I am. God made me good in every way, and not a word they say can change that.

What was a memorable or uplifting feedback or reaction you got from a fan or stranger along the way?

The thing that turned on the light bulb for me was the first time I had a video go viral during pandemic and almost every comment was some version of “this makes me feel seen, this makes me feel safe.” I continue to get that same comment when I hang out with the audience after every show I do, and it especially means a lot coming from queer youth and parents of queer kids. It’s the whole reason I do any of this. I know what it was like to grow up not seeing a happy future for myself, and I’m completely, stubbornly single-minded in my effort to make sure I can gift that to as many young queer people as possible.

What’s coming next for you?

In addition to lots and lots of touring, I’m starting work on a book, and I also have a dream of writing a musical with some like-minded friends next year. We’ve been talking about it forever, and I think it’s time to get it done!