Omigod, you guys: Laura Bell Bundy is, like, totally cool with you. That she'll have a country album out on April 13 in a genre that has often been known for being conservative and not so vocal on queer issues doesn't mean the Kentucky cutie won't be. She had a gay following long before her debut with a bangin' Broadway career, playing roles in "Legally Blonde" and "Hairspray."
"Achin' & Shakin'," split between honky-tonk heartbreakers and campy country-dance, is riding on the first single – the infectious "Giddy on Up," which has also been remixed for the clubs. Here, Bundy chats about performing for the gays, her make-out music and how she's just like many of us.
What's it been like performing in gay venues?
When you do Broadway you tend to be performing for a very strong gay male contingency – and, you know what, I love it! It's more fun. I don't know whether it's because of "Legally Blonde" or because the music's a little brassy and ballsy – at least the "Shakin'" side is. But when I do the live shows, it's choreographed and I have two attractive male dancers dancing behind me. We have underwear that we pass out that says "Giddy on Up" on the front and "Giddy on Out" on the back. And we make the boys that I'm dancing with wear them.
Briefs?
Oh yeah.
Why did you decide to split the album into two themes?
I had wanted to do Norah Jones for country when I first started writing, and then I thought, No, I need to be able to do some up-tempo dance – maybe more of an Amy Winehouse country.
So over the course of a year I started to write in those two different directions, providing a mood for the listener because I always listen to music based on the playlist I've made, like I have a workout playlist, I have a make-out playlist and a wallow-in-your-sorrow and a walking-down-the-street playlist. I really wanted to provide two different moods – like an old record.
Name some songs on that make-out playlist.
Lots of Norah Jones. I have Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long," "Just One Kiss" by Raphael Saadiq and Joss Stone, and some Pete Yorn and Iron and Wine.
So more romantic than sexual.
Yeah, it's more romantic, but I do have one with Jay-Z and stuff on it (laughs).
I thought you might have a naughty side, especially after hearing some of the innuendo on "Rebound," which sounds pro-quickie to me.
(Laughs) I'm not pro-quickie, honey! I'm pro-let's-do-it-till-the-job's-done. But "Rebound" is more, I'm telling you right now I'm rebounding and I don't want to commit with you, and if you like it you don't have to put a ring on it.
I know that you're a big Dolly Parton fan, and I definitely sense her influence in the music. How did she shape your sound?
I love her! I love how she just commits to whatever emotion or story she's telling, and she's just sassy and she's got a great sense of humor. And I like her sound – the bluegrass and the production style of a lot of her records, I'm drawn to that.
I hear that in your own music, along with some of your musical-theater influences.
I don't really feel like I tried to put any musical theater in it. The only thing that might feel musical theater is the fact that I can be a bit campy and I like to use a sense of humor and crack a joke within the lyrics. I love punchlines.
Was it your idea to do remixes of "Giddy on Up"?
Honestly, it was not. I knew that we wanted to do dance remixes because I wanted to bring this shit to Europe.
And the gay clubs?
I totally wanted to have it for the gay clubs. Absolutely. There is an amazing gay man I work with who also thought it would be a great idea to do that. It was several people at the label and me who were like, "Let's do it." I've always wanted to do some special performances or special remixes for the gay community because that's my fan base in a lot of ways.
Tell me more about the relationship with your gay fans and colleagues.
I began doing professional theater in New York when I was 9 years old with "Christmas Spectacular." My singing teacher when I was a young child was a gay man who unfortunately passed away from AIDS, which has made me a big supporter of Equity Fights AIDS and those programs.
I starred in this show called "Ruthless! The Musical," which was the beginning of the gay community being aware of who I was because it was the campiest show you could ever imagine. It was very cult. Years later I was in the original cast of "Hairspray," then "Wicked" and finally "Legally Blonde," which is like the ultimate. We'd have drag queens dressed in blonde wigs. Also, all of the people that I was ever hired by were either gay or Jewish. Or both.
I don't know whether it's that the genre that I was in, which was musical theater, tends to be run and formed and created by gay men, but I'm also drawn to it, and I'm also drawn to that kind of environment, and I'm also drawn to gay men – they understand me the best. And I understand them the best. It's a mutual kind of love. I learned how to perform from them.
You mentioned drag queens attending "Legally Blonde" – you know, it's only a matter of time before someone becomes a Laura Bell Bundy drag queen.
Hell yes! I can't wait! You know what's so funny is people ask me a lot, "Who are your country music influences?" And I say Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Reba. They're all gay icons. And considering all the music that I listened to as a kid – Julie Andrews and Judy Garland – I really was like a gay man (laughs). My mom is, too. Her openness to the gay community and her big Dolly Parton hair that attracted them, that probably opened the floodgates.
You were raised Catholic, though. That never conflicted with your beliefs on homosexuality?
No. I've always been of the mindset that you love all and you have compassion for all and all are accepted in the eyes of God, or whoever they believe in. I'll have friendships with anybody. I don't judge anybody for their sexual preferences or their lifestyle or anything.
Do you think country gets a bum rap and is unfairly called anti-gay?
I do, and you'd be surprised that it's not. I actually thought that country music in Nashville was much more conservative than it actually is. There are many more gay men involved in the country music industry than you would imagine.
Like who? Kenny Chesney?
Ahh. (Silence). In a perfect world it wouldn't matter.
Britney Spears was your understudy in "Ruthless!" Were there any signs that she might shave her head or flash her hoo-ha in public?
Oh no. None of that. Everybody always asks me that, "Any signs that she would … drop a baby?" No! She was a baby, for God's sake! I was 10; she was 9 – something like that.
Were you friends?
We were friendly. We saw each other backstage and my mom and her mom talked, and over time I said "hi" to her in passing at different events, like when she came to see "Hairspray." That was it.
You do a lot of vocal impressions, right?
I do. I think I learned how to sing like that. I used to listen to all kinds of music, and I remember trying to – at 5 or 6 years old – make my voice sound exactly like the recording.
What were some of your favorite impressions?
Judy Garland – young and old, or sober and non-sober – and I do "The Wizard of Oz" impression of her. And then I do Julie Andrews, Celine Dion and Ethel Merman.
So a lot of old Hollywood.
Totally. Did I mention the similarities between a gay man and me? (Laughs)
