When Drake Jensen started on his musical odyssey 10 years ago he had two mandates; one - he wanted to do the country music he grew up listening to in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, “I grew up listening to real country music, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams Sr and Merle Haggard.” And two - he wanted to stay true to his identity as a gay man. Being a country artist is a tough enough row to hoe but being the first openly gay country artist doubled if not tripled his odds.
Drake was the first openly gay country artist in Canada and never once thought about not revealing his homosexuality to make the road easier, like some U.S. artists who built straight careers before coming out and that never really worked out so well.
“I’m proud of who I am and was not going to try and fool people about my preferences to get accepted. It took me a long time and lot of bullying and abuse to get the strength of my conviction. It’s not been easy but worth every minute.”
