Saturday, November 6, 2010
Q+A Black Lips' Swilley discusses father's recent coming out
Posted by Chad Radford @ChadRad on Sat, Nov 6, 2010 at 12:21 PM
Jim Swilley is the father of Black Lips bass player and frontman Jared Swilley, and he’s about as charismatic a speaker as they come. After watching the video, it’s impossible to deny the uplifting nature of his talk, regardless of sexual orientation or religious affiliation. Over the weekend I had a chance to catch up with Jared, who was in New York, tracking the next Black Lips record (set for a possible April release date on Vice Records) with producer Mark Ronson, and talk about his father’s coming out.
Chad Radford: You’ve been out of town playing shows and recording, but I assume that you’ve watched the video of your dad’s church service in which he tells his congregation that he’s gay.
Jared Swilley: Yeah, I watched it the day after it happened.
Church of the Now seems to be pretty progressive. His congregation was very supportive — they’re not Southern Baptists!
Yeah, it is a pretty progressive church, especially now. My dad’s philosophy is kind of what you call “inclusionist.” It’s a universal thing and basically he doesn’t really believe that people are bound for Hell. He’s got a pretty positive message.
My dad was born in the ‘50s, in the deep South, to Protestant celebrities in the South, so you can’t really get any more hostile than that, at least in this country. In Uganda they’re trying to make homosexuality a capital punishment. And apparently you can get in trouble for not outing someone if you know they’re gay.
Do you come from a long line of church leaders, bishops, preachers and the likes?
On my father’s side of the family, I think pretty much every male is involved with the church. I don’t know how far back it goes, but it does go back a long way.
Was there pressure on you to go into the church as well?
No, I never felt any pressure from my dad, but really what we're doing isn’t all that different. He leads praise and worship, and he put out a whole bunch of records when he was my age, back in the ‘80s. There’s even a picture of me on the back of my dad’s first record, when I was a baby. He played piano and saxophone and had a full band. My uncles and my great aunts and uncles also had a band called the Swilley Family Singers. People sometimes bring those records to Black Lips shows and give them to me.
I always liked the energy at my dad’s church. People would speak in tongues, the music was loud and people were going crazy. But it was in the morning time and there was no alcohol… I always wanted rock and roll show to have that much passion.
Have you known that your dad was gay for a while, or was this news to you?
I had no idea at all. He had been married twice and he’s a preacher. When he called to tell me that he’s gay I was in Berlin on tour. It was definitely shocking, but I was actually glad when he told me. I feel closer to him now because he’s being honest with himself and everyone around him. It took him a long time to do it, and I honestly think he’s hoping to live his whole life and never come out and do it, but now that he has I think he’s a lot happier.
It can’t be easy to tell your congregation that you’re gay.
No, most Christians are not cool with that, and I’ve seen some people on Christian blogs saying some of the most hateful, hurtful things about it. Insane things; the kind of things that you can’t believe this is someone that you see on a daily basis, and they’re spouting that kind of stuff.
When my dad told me he was gay, he asked me if it would affect our relationship, and I said, “Are you kidding me? No, it’s not going to affect our relationship.” But it does take a lot of balls to come out in an environment like that, and I think I respect him a little more now. He’s tougher now that he came out of the closet, which was probably one of the toughest things he could have done. I thought it was pretty bad ass.
He’s faced some criticism for it, and even in the video a few people walk out on the service, but I talked with my grandma on Sunday and she said that it hasn’t made anything that different.
How long ago did he tell you?
It was back in May, when I came back from tour. He took me and my brothers out to Mary Mac’s and then over to Piedmont Park and we all sat around and talked about it. It was the closest that I’ve felt with my family in a really long time.
There are a lot of practicing Christians out there who are also homosexuals, and I can’t think of anything that would cause more internal or external conflict.
It seems like you would really hate yourself all the time if you felt that if you acted on what you’re naturally inclined to do, you would burn in hell. That’s scary. I think it’s good for kids who in a Christian household—it must be terrible to be a gay teen and have intolerant Christian parents.
Editor's note: According to Black Lips' publicist the release date for the new record is not yet solidified, but confirms a possible April release date.
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Comments (13)
Showing 1-13 of 13
Jared -- it seems like your father and mother raised you well. Kudos to everyone in the family for coming out -- it is not just Jim, but the entire family who has a gay member. In most charismatic/Pentecostal type churches this would create great conflict. I think it is a testament to your dad that it did not. He came out in an integrous, honest fashion without scandal or rumors to force him to do so. That is commendable.
Thanks to everyone for making your family a role model for other families with gay members to follow. Thanks in particular for being a supportive family. As a gay person who comes from similar roots I know how important that is. Be blessed.
Now I am encouraged to check out your music as well.
-- Henry Juhala
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dislike
maybe he'll stop running around calling people faggots now and apologizing by saying its just natural for him to call people he doesnt like faggots (wavves incident)/
urenamehere: Like you've never said something mean about another person before and regretted it. Quit being such a judgemental douche.
ormewoodian: I made the decision a long time ago, shortly after graduating high school, not to call things gay or use the word 'fag' or 'faggot'. Probably most people over about 19 also stopped that bad habit. Certainly I say many things I regret, never said I didnt. Just pointing out that it is something that should probably be addressed in the article.
(and yes, just like being drunk and saying 'nigger' repeatedly is no excuse, neither is being drunk and saying faggot repeatedly. I am sure I can never criticize Michael Richards without being a judgemental douche either???).
Jim Swilley has not done any anti gay preaching from his pulpit, EVER. We at www.affirmingchristian.com asked him that question and if he ever taught the five verses in a positive light. You are commenting on what USUALLY happens, not in this case.
I also did a blog post on the interview and issues around it. I am a straight Evangelical Christian and an advocate to the GLBT community.http://canyonwalkerconnections.com/?p=1535
This man is one of integrity.
Yeah co-sign ormewoodian. Y'all have called people names too, sooo STFU. I bet urnamehere has used the F word. Just no one gives a shit about him so the media has never documented it.
Oh, and kudos to CL for not asking about the Wavves incident, which everyone, myself included, was drooling to hear addressed.
Irony alert: Urenamehere couldn't resist typing the f word 3 times, and couldn't even resist dropping an N bomb for no reason. Round of applause! Must've felt good to get that outta your system. #lol
jesterofhelpmeat: Yeah, its so ironic because saying the word 'faggot' while discussing the meaning and use of the word is totally, exactly the same as saying it to insult someone you dislike. Idiot.
"Talking shit about me on the Internet is one thing, I can handle that all day but when some dude is just looking for a fight at 4 in the morning talking shit to my face and his girlfriend is spitting in the face of all my friends it's a whole different story. I have no problem wih [sic] black lips or anybody else that i havent met but jared has been at me every chance he had. I just want to play music and have fun. It was unfortunate that it escalated to that point but he got what was coming to him."
But then today Buddyhead spoke to Swilley, and he had a very different version of events:
"First of all, I just wanna say that Wavves was NOT involved in that fight. That faggot didn't even touch me.
I've never 'come after' that kid, it wasn't four a.m., that wasn't my girlfriend, no one was spitting, and I didn't attack him. I don't give a shit about that kid and his music.
What happened was, after we finished our set I went to Daddy's with some friends and saw that faggot from Wavves talking to a photographer friend of mine. The only thing I did was walk up to him and say 'You're that faggot from Wavves and I don't like you'. He smiled a bit but didn't say anything.
After that, I went outside and saw their tour manager hanging around with some guys. They started getting all chuckles with me and so I told them I wasn't gonna have it. After that, Wavves tour manager hit me square in the face with a bottle. Blood started pouring out and six dudes fucking started kicking me until I blacked out.
All I remember is getting hit with the bottle and my friends dragging me to another bar. They wrapped my head up until I looked like a Confederate soldier.
So yeah, I lost the fight.
I also missed three flights. I've been in the airport all day having stewardesses cleaning my head because it kept cracking open. You can't go on board if you're bleeding.
Bottom line is that faggot from Wavves didn't even hit me. Never touched me. And he should've, cuz he had a free shot.
He's coming to Atlanta October 3rd and we're gonna get ugly on him. We're gonna destroy their van, we're gonna destroy their faces, we're gonna get crazy on em'. Nasty style."
http://pitchfork.com/news/36620-wavves-vs-…
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