Today is Valentine’s day, aka Lover’s Day, and it felt right that on this day in Black History Month, the person that needs to be celebrated is Luther Vandross. If you need help getting some loving on this day, just put on a Luther Vandross album. After a nice meal and a few drinks and chocolates, ain’t nobody keeping their clothes on once Luther starts singing. All you gotta do is play So Amazing or Promise Me or There’s Nothing Better Than Love. Hell, just make it easy on yourself – tell Alexa to play the album “The Best of Luther Vandross: The Best of Love.”
Luther Vandross being gay was the worst kept, best kept secret in the music industry. As much as I have wanted to include him on my lists of great LGBTQ African-Americans in history, the fact that Luther never came out kept me from adding him to the list. All that changed when Patti LaBelle spilled his tea in an interview with Andy Cohen. Let’s be real, everybody knew Luther was gay, but people still got angry with Patti when she finally revealed his truth – his truth that everybody knew anyway. Patti was very close friends with Luther and knew him well. If what she revealed about Luther was based on rumor or based on things she assumed, I could see people being upset. But Patti spoke TRUTH and it was truth about someone she called a close friend. And child – you can’t get mad at the truth.
There is a video on YouTUbe called “The Journey of Luther Vandross” and in it he actually answered the question about his sexuality – many years before Patti outed him. The entire video is great but if you want to hear him speak on who get goes to bed with at night, jump to the 33 minute: 12 second mark. And that answer – is why I love me some Luther (big Luther and little Luther).
No comments:
Post a Comment