Looks like he made it.
Barry Manilow revealed Friday that the reason he kept his sexual orientation quiet for so long was due to the fact that the singer feared being gay would have “killed” his career.
“Well, in the ’70s, you know, you didn’t [come out],” Manilow, 80, said to veteran journalist Chris Wallace while appearing on an episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?“
“It wasn’t the same as it is today. Now being gay is no big deal. But back in the ’70s, it would have killed a career.”
Manilow, who came out publicly in 2017 at the age of 73, told Wallace that being gay in the 1970s was a personal issue and that he wanted to focus on making music rather than talking about his personal life.
“The public was not ready for anybody to come out. And, frankly, it was just too personal,” the singer told Wallace, 76. “I just didn’t want to talk about my personal life anyway. I never did that.”
“I was happy talking about music. But talking about my personal life was just kind of creepy to me. So I never did,” the “Could It Be Magic” singer added.
When asked by Wallace if Manilow ever felt like he needed to hide who he was, Manilow said he “never thought about it.”
“Honestly, Chris, it was a non-event,” Manilow stated, adding that no one was really surprised when the singer and his manager Garry Kief, whom he met in 1978, both came out as gay and said that they had been secretly married since 2014.
“And when we came out, it was — I think everybody knew that Garry and I were a couple all those years,” the “Mandy” singer said.
Manilow also credits Kief, 75, with saving his life.
“As my career exploded, it was just crazy. And, you know, going back to an empty hotel room, you can get into a lot of trouble if you, you know, you’re alone night after night after night,” Manilow said. “But I met Garry right when everything was exploding, and I didn’t have to go back to those empty hotel rooms. I had somebody to cry with or to celebrate with.”
“It was pretty lonely until I met Garry. And then it was fun,” he added.
Manilow recently scored a huge win Monday after his musical “Harmony” opened on Broadway after the “Copacabana” singer reportedly worked on the show for nearly 30 years.
The “Can’t Smile Without You” singer’s show tells the story of a six-man German band made up of three Jewish men and three Gentiles called the Comedian Harmonists during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.
“The show’s forceful rallying cry against anti-Semitism and for peaceful coexistence is relevant and movingly reverberates,” The Post’s Johnny Oleksinski writes.
“Harmony” is currently playing at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York while “Who’s Talking With Chris Wallace?” is available on Max.
Source link
