Darren Hayes Disses “Will and Grace”

Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 8:15 am. 5 comments

London-based Aussie-born singer/songwriter Darren Hayes, in a Gay Times interview quoted by Digital Spy, rants about mainstream coverage of gay issues and personalities.

“I have a whole issue about mainstream pop and certainly television culture, and how damaging that is in terms of dumbing down being gay.  All those clichés about being gay I think are really limiting whereas in reality it’s just a trait, it’s like eye colour or hair colour, it’s a physical trait.  Being gay is somehow an indulgent choice?  It infuriates me.  You’re either Graham Norton or George Michael getting arrested in parks and I’m neither of those things.”

Hayes aimed some of his most particular criticism at the popular US sitcoms like Will and Grace, saying “I think it appeals to the lowest common denominator that basically there are two types of gay men, the slut, or there’s the straight acting guy.”

Hayes was, with keyboardist Daniel Jones, the enormously successful pop group, Savage Garden.  From their base in Australia they launched worldwide hits in the late 1990s inluding “Truly Madly Deeply,” “I Knew I Loved You,” and “The Animal Song.”  After the group split in 2001 Hayes embarked on a successful solo career.  He’s sold more than 25 million records and is the third most popular Australian musical export after INXS and Kylie Minogue.

In 1994, Hayes married a childhood sweetheart, makeup artist Colby Taylor.  But there was a dark cloud hovering over his pop stardom.  “My whole career as a big commercial pop artist was fed through self-hatred, basically.  It was all about escapism in a fraudulent way.  I became a pop star because I knew I had to become something extraordinary to escape.”

Hayes and Taylor were divorced in 2000.  Hayes started coming out to his friends.  On June 19, 2006 he formed a civil partnership with Richard Cullen.

Hayes finds his new work embraces the redemptive power of love and comes with a real upbeat edge that wasn’t possible before he came out.

Darren Hayes