Country music outlaw Willie Nelson sang "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" and "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" more than 25 years ago. He released a very different sort of cowboy anthem this Valentine's Day. "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)" may be the first gay cowboy song by a major recording artist. But it was written long before this year's Oscar-nominated "
"Roses are red/Violets are blue/I've always wanted/To rope and brand you."
The song, which debuted Tuesday on Howard Stern's satellite radio show, was written by Texas-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette. Sublette said he wrote it during the "Urban Cowboy" craze and always imagined Nelson singing it.
Sublette: "John Travolta inspired me to write a gay love song."
Travolta: "Great. Kill me now. Thanks for nothin' pal!"
Someone passed a copy of the song to Nelson back in the late 1980s and, according to Nelson's record label, Lost Highway, he recorded it last year at his Pedernales studio in Texas. . . .
But how gay is it, really? Does it feature guest vocals by Boy George and KD Lang? A sheep chorus doing backup? Techno club dance beats? A Liberace piano sample?