For years, Fancy Hagood faced prejudice and pop detours. Now he’s back to country music, and finally feeling less alone.

LGBTQ+ performers and fans are enjoying greater visibility than they have in the past. And one of the more rippling, resonant tenor voices in the mix is that of country-pop’s Fancy Hagood.

Unlike many of the queer artists that he now counts as kindred spirits and occasional collaborators, he didn’t come up in an underground scene or a separate space — he beelined for Nashville in the late 2000s with his sights set on proving himself, and his handsome, rousing melodies as mainstream material.

I sat down with him to talk about navigating an industry that wasn’t ready for that. You can hear a postcard in his voice above, and find the longform Q&A at Variety.