Dustin Lance Black not only directed the new documentary “Rock Out” about the queer influence on heavy metal, punk and rock n’ roll, but he’s also in it.
For good reason.
The feature pulls inspiration from a New York Times article by Jim Farber that examined the queer influence on rock, as wells as a question that Black’s late brother Marcus asked before he died 14 years ago: “Are there any gays like me?”
Marcus was a queer punk rock n’ roller. But unlike Lance, who won an Oscar for screenwriting for the Harvey Milk biopic “Milk” and is one of Hollywood’s most outspoken LGBTQ advocates, Marcus was closeted for most of his life. He passed away in 2012 from cancer.
“My brother was black leather-clad almost his entire life and not until later in his life did he cut his long rocker hair,” Black tells me. “He was in so many ways the model of heterosexuality. This was a guy who loved rock n’ roll, metal and punk and also was an auto mechanic.”
Black admits he actually didn’t know if there were any other LGBTQ people like his brother. “I didn’t have an answer for him. You’d think, if anybody, I would because I know the queer world pretty well,” he says. “I couldn’t think of any group of people I had met or known who were into that music. The music was so important to my brother.”
“Rock Out” finally provides some answers with a look back at prominent gay music figures, including Beatles manager Brian Epstein (a closeted gay man who allegedly may have had romantic entanglements with John Lennon) and Rob Halford, the lead vocalist of Judas Priest, who came out in 1998. “Rock Out” also delves into the homoeroticism of Elvis Presley’s swiveling hips and the trail blazed by Elton John.
In one of the film’s most captivating interviews, Black tracks down transgender glam rock legend Jayne County at her home in rural Georgia, where she recalls being at the Stonewall riots in 1969. “I got there and people were raising hell,” she says. “I said, ‘What happened?’ And they said, ‘Cops came in and they started pushing people around and they were doing sex searches on the drag queens and the trannies in there and you had to show this policewoman your genitals.’”
She adds with a laugh, “I guess they couldn’t get any men to do that.”
Black also requests and is granted an interview with The Dead Milkmen. The punk group was Marcus’ favorite band (their music was playing when he took his last breath), but also infamous for homophobic lyrics and hurling gay slurs and AIDS jokes during concerts.
Black was unaware that its lead singer, Joseph Genaro, is gay. “My brother would be shocked, and he would just laugh and probably light up a cigarette and just keep laughing for 20 minutes, half an hour,” Black says. “But I think it became clear that a queer history had been erased. And that’s not news to me. I’ve made a career out of un-erasing.”
“Rock Out,” produced by Bill Gerber, will have its world premiere on June 21 in the U.K. at Sheffield DocFest, where it is also on the market for distribution. “I think a lot of the buyers, distributors and streamers out there are playing it a little safe,” Black says, referring to the chilling effect that the ongoing and increasing political attacks on the LGBTQ community have had on Hollywood. “They’re probably scared to put something that reclaims this queer space on air…No matter how good it is, it’s going to be a bit of a fight to get something like this out there. But it’s not the first time. Just to remind people, we got ‘Milk’ made during George W. Bush.”
What does Black think his brother would think of the film?
“He’d say, ‘It’s really fucking gay,’ and that would be a compliment because he was punk,” Black says. “I think there are things that would shock him because you have to understand that there are people who know that punk and metal and rock n’ roll have gay roots and that gay people have little homes in those communities, but we weren’t from a big city where people know those things. We grew up outside of San Antonio, Texas and Salinas, Calif. in mostly military communities. We didn’t have access to those sorts of people and groups.”