Country singer-songwriter Sam Williams is having a moment as he recently released a deluxe version of his album Glasshouse Children: Tilted Crown along with an accompanying music video. On top of that, he has publicly come out as gay for the first time.
Williams is part of a country music dynasty which includes his grandfather Hank Williams and his father Hank Williams Jr., but it is clear that he has paved his own path – which is explored in the music video for “Tilted Crown”.
In it, Williams sits in a theater and watches the ups, downs, loves and losses in his life unfold in front of him as a play. When Williams first heard the premise of the music video, he admitted he was nervous.
“I just didn’t know if I was ready to do that,” Williams told GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos. “I think that when you go through a lot of grief, you can start to feel like a victim and you don’t want for that to become your identity in that victimhood… but at the same time I thought that so many people can relate to losing their loved ones and just going through hardship and struggle.”
Despite his apprehensions, he thought it would be best to embrace it. “It doesn’t have to be something that’s descriptive of your entire being,” he said. “Everybody goes through the same things in life and I thought it was really impactful to share those.”
This is also a big moment because Williams has come out as gay and is bolstering queer representation in an industry where it is not common.
“It feels good,” he said. “Thankfully there’s been some trailblazers before me and you kind of have it in your head [that] when you reach a certain level of success or if you’re more exposed, what’s the right time to?”
“I just thought that there’s no reason to not just be myself and it’s 2022, for goodness sake… I think it’s time that everyone should be allowed to be themselves and if you want to represent for people and be an ally, that’s what I’d like to be.”
Williams said that he admired fellow country artist T.J. Osborne from Brothers Osborne when he came out. There was a struggle and it took years for him to feel comfortable and build a supportive base so that it wouldn’t influence his career.
For Williams, he doesn’t want people to make it more about his coming out rather than his music. He hopes that he has established himself enough that being gay isn’t his entire being.
“It’s me being who I am,” he said. “I just hope that it just speaks to myself and being comfortable in my own skin.”
“Glasshouse Children: Tilted Crown” is available now.