Lil Nas X is featured on the cover of Time magazine. In an accompanying interview, the 20-year-old rapper opened up about his decision to come out as gay earlier this summer.
Though Lil Nas didn’t plan on coming out, the fact that his inescapable hit “Old Town Road” — featuring Billy Ray Cyrus — was dominating Billboard charts and radio airwaves during Pride Month made him think again. According to the Georgia native, he was initially hesitant about coming out because he was taught from a young age that homosexuality “is never going to be OK.” Plus, he feared he might lose fans if he shared his truth.
“I know the people who listen to this the most, and they’re not accepting of homosexuality,” he said, later explaining that seeing celebrations of love during June helped his worries subside. “I never would have done that if I wasn’t in a way pushed by the universe. In June, I’m seeing Pride flags everywhere and seeing couples holding hands — little stuff like that.”
Lil Nas is one of the few openly queer black mainstream musicians. Frank Ocean came out in 2012, and Tyler the Creator did so in 2017. Lil Nas first came out to his sister and father in June. He then publicly came out on Twitter, casually doing so by writing, “Thought I made it obvious,” pointing to a rainbow on his album cover. His revelation was met with a handful of hateful reactions, but Lil Nas simply fired back at trolls with jokes. He once wrote on Twitter that the next person to say something offensive would be “getting kissed.”
While he has quickly embraced his sexual identity, Lil Nas admitted to Time that fame — and the anxiety he experiences because of it — has been tougher to come to terms with. His star has risen at an exponential rate thanks to the success of “Old Town Road,” which is now the longest charting No. 1 song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, beating out previous titleholders Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men (“One Sweet Day”), and Justin Bieber, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee (“Despacito”). To date, Lil Nas’ “Old Town Road” has spent 19 weeks in the top spot through the chart dated Aug. 17.
“It gets overwhelming,” he said. “I just shut down on everybody — I’m still a loner in a lot of ways.”
Read Lil Nas’ entire Time profile here and see the cover below.
