Orville Peck is an openly gay country singer who is one of the talent scouts in Apple TV+’s new series, ‘My Kind of Country.’
Orville Peck is a pseudonym for Daniel Pitout who was born on January 6, 1988 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the son of a sound engineer, and so he did voice-overs for cartoons and other media when he was young.
He learned about music on his own by playing acoustic guitar and an old Casio keyboard. Not to mention, he trained in ballet for 12 years, as well as performed in musical theater. The 35-year-old country singer had already been in national tours for musicals in his early 20s.
Orville lived in Johannesburg, South Africa until he was 15 years old, and he is now based in Canada. He is the drummer of the Canadian punk band Nü Sensae. In 2019, he released his self-produced debut album called Pony.
He worked on the album while living with his parents and working at a coffee shop. He noted that he “wrote, produced and played every instrument he could” in Pony. Moreover, the singer opened up about being an openly gay country artist in a recent interview with People.
“A lot of people [were] practically laughing in my face, telling me that being an openly gay man in country would never work. I’ve [had] very discouraging moments in my career,” he shared.
Despite the challenges that he has faced in his career, Orville refused to give up, expressing:
“But I kept my chin up, and I refused to let anybody tell me that I couldn’t do what I wanted. If someone tells me I can’t do something, it makes me want to do it even more.”
The “Dead of Night” singer was also asked about his mystery fringe mask, which became his signature.
“The misconception is that it’s a character or I’m cultivating some persona or whatever. But I grew up loving country where there was an intersection between theatricality and very honest songwriting.”
He further explained,
“Dolly’s a perfect example — the big wigs, the crazy outfits, but it’s her. For me, I was obsessed with the Lone Ranger, cowboys hiding their face, so that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to mix really vulnerable personal music, which is what I write, with this theatricality and performance.”
Moreover, Orville is starring alongside fellow country singers Jimmie Allen and Mickey Guyton in ‘My Kind of Country,’ wherein the three of them are on the search for rising country talents who can bring a new perspective in the traditionally conservative genre.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org, people.com, thepinknews.com
We have pretty much no gay representation in Country music so it’s nice to have him.
Okay Sia 🙄 so overrated and pretentious. Get over yourself dude.
Funny you make a comment like this anonymously …. Interesting