Queering Country
Drag superstar and winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3 Trixie Mattel was on the path to becoming a country singer long before she tried on her signature blonde wig for the first time. In fact, the seed of musicality was planted before the persona of Trixie Mattel existed at all. Brian Firkus, the man behind Trixie’s dramatically contoured face and histrionically feminine figure, was just a child growing up in rural Wisconsin when his grandfather identified his knack for music. “My grandfather was a folk musician,” Firkus tells in an interview with Broadly. “I grew up playing guitar and singing at the kitchen table with my grandpa. That was in my blood, and there was an understanding that I’d grow up and be a musician.”
Trixie’s grandfather’s table-side fostering of her musical tal...