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Lavender Country, known as “the world’s first openly gay country band,” confirmed that bandmate Patrick Haggerty has died. He was 78.
“This morning, we lost a great soul. RIP Patrick Haggerty,” Lavender Country captioned a photo on Instagram on Monday (October 31). “After suffering a stroke several weeks ago, he was able to spend his final days at home surrounded by his kids and lifelong husband, JB. Love, and solidarity. 💜💜💜”
Lavender Country released their debut album in the early 1970s, a 10-track self-titled project that made history as what’s considered the first openly-gay album in country music. The band rereleased the legendary albumin 2014, and shared a new 10-track project, Blackberry Rose, earlier this year, nearly five decades after Lavender Country’s debut.
Earlier this year, Haggerty told CNN: “When we made Lavender Country, it was sort of an announcement that I had changed my mind, and that I was going to be a rabble-rouser … as opposed to someone who was going to be onstage doing anything. I had to choose one or the other, and there was no possible way that I could be both.”
Haggerty — who also told CNN that “we weren’t stupid” when making Lavender Country, and “no genre was going to take stock of anything that I had to say” — added at the time that he “didn’t aspire” to reach big fame, but “I made Lavender Country as a vehicle for social change, and now I get to use Lavender Country for the exact reason that I made it in the first place – pure and unadulterated.”