Mere hours after singer-songwriter Steve Grand released his self-funded, deeply emotional, and innocently sexy موسیقی video “All-American Boy,” he’d scored thousands of YouTube views, endorsements on Twitter from Lance باس, گھنگھور and John Barrowman, and the following Buzzfeed headline: “Meet the First Openly Gay Male Country Star.” Indeed, the 22-year-old musician from Lemont, IL had made an immediate impact: He was gay, he was singing about having a crush on another guy, and his confident vulnerability was undeniably anthemic.

The video, about a gay man’s heartbreaking crush on a pal,...

TBL: Should listeners expect مزید songs like “All-American Boy” in the future?

SG: I believe they want to see what’s in my دل because they’ve really responded to what’s in my heart, so that’s what I’m going to give it to them. So I don’t think you’ll expect a big سب, سب سے اوپر 20 hit from me for awhile. There’s other موسیقی I want to make, and it’s not necessarily the most commercial. These people who’ve reached out to me are good, good people, and they deserve my best. I have to work for them. That’s my life now. I’m hesitant to put my song on iTunes — people keep asking...

TBL: On a مزید artistic note, who are your songwriting heroes?

SG: They change all the time. Lately I’ve been a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. He’s just so the real deal. So genuine, and I love his voice. I love his songwriting. I think it’s brilliant. Billy Joel, Elton John — they’re piano players like I am. They’ve been a huge influence. Billy Joel is one of the greatest songwriters. Definitely John Lennon too. He just might be the best songwriter ever. My parents kept me very sheltered growing up. They didn’t let us listen to radio. We didn’t have cable. The TV was never on....

TBL: Did آپ keep your sexuality a secret for long?

SG: I’m a very emotional guy and a very expressive guy. It was not long after that that I felt the need to share. I’m an artist, my life is about the need to express emotions with people. I wasn’t able to keep it a secret.

TBL: Tell me about the character آپ have a crush on in the video. What does that character represent?

SG: There’s always been that man in my life, a little older, someone who takes me under his wing. It’s that smart, confident, unthreatened heterosexual man. I think the world is changing very quickly and straight...