Steve Lacy has opened up about his sexuality, revealing that he finds the act of coming out unnecessary because of all the commotion it triggers.
In an interview with Variety posted on Tuesday (August 8), the Internet guitarist and vocalist discussed the unwanted attention that came his way when he made a passing remark about his sexual orientation years ago.
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During a Tumblr chat with fans in 2017, Lacy was asked if he was open to dating men, to which he responded: “Sure, why not.” The media subsequently ran with this, labelling Lacy as “bisexual” even though he never specified that.
“But I didn’t really come out,” he said. “I didn’t try to — it just kinda happened. I don’t care to announce who I’m into sexually. I think it’s silly. I never felt like I needed to come out.”
Steve Lacy has been making quite the name for himself with his genre-bending sound. In 2022, his album, Gemini Rights, debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 with 34,000 equivalent units its first week, and his single “Bad Habit” peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this year.
In a 2022 interview with The Guardian, Lacy said the eclectic sound on the record came from various indie rock and pop punk influences.
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“I’ve always loved doing that — if I have a rocky beat, putting a soulful melody on it. Like ‘Dark Red’ and all those types of songs. It’s a way to play and introduce new ideas into things that we know already,” he said.
“Growing up playing [the video game] Guitar Hero put me on to a lot of rock and guitar music. As I got older, artists such as Paramore raised me. Mac DeMarco, Dirty Projectors, Vampire Weekend. Even Weezer’s ‘Undone’ is one of my favorite songs ever.”
He added that Paramore’s Hayley Williams also had a serious impact on him growing up. “Hayley’s voice and melodies are crazy because she takes the rock thing and makes it soulful,” Lacy said, adding that he specifically loved Weezer’s “wit” and “humor.”
“The dissonance of the chord progression of ‘Undone’ is truly just weird. For something like that to exist was super important for me in my musical journey, to be, like: ‘Oh, wow, you can make this sound fun and dope.'”
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Lacy also mentioned the folk singer Faye Webster, as well as late legends like Prince and Jimi Hendrix.
“When I make music, I take a small piece of everything that I love – I’ll take certain melodic approaches from Prince, but I’ll play it as if someone else was mimicking Prince, like if Jimi Hendrix tried to be Prince,” he said. “But I like to mix different approaches together. It happens naturally. I’m never doing it all purposely. It’s just inside of me.”
