Ford Fairchild | Guilty as Sin / 2024

the halo don’t fit

by Douglas Messerli

 

Chris Housman (composer and performer), Ford Fairchild (director) Guilty as Sin / 2024 (3 minutes) [music video]

 

If you thought gay country performer’s Blueneck of 2024 was hot—and it was—then you need to hear and watch his music video of the same year, Guilty as Sin, in which he falls for an equally “blueneck” country boy (Gabe LaDuke).

     I can’t tell you what it means to a city boy to hear a country western singer express his love so very openly in a world that doesn’t truly want to accept that vision. It’s a wonderful sense of liberation to hear such lyrics as Housman croons out:

 

Tried to fight it

To deny it

But every single night it’s the same desire, same damn fire

 

Smoked a little

Tried to pray

Knew it was you the moment I felt this, baby I’m helpless

 

I can only resist for so long

 

I gave it my best

But this halo don’t fit

If I had to spend forever in heaven without you might as well be in hell

My verdict is in

Cause baby if loving you is wrong

Then I’m guilty as sin

 

I’m done pretending

Cut the tension

Ain’t no use in us acting like, this ain’t right

 

I need your body

Heavy on me

I’m always falling back to your gravity, it’s pulling me

 

And I can only resist for so long

 

I gave it my best

But this halo don’t fit

If I had to spend forever in heaven without you might as well be in hell

My verdict is in

Cause baby if loving you is wrong

Then I’m guilty as sin

 

I can only resist for so long

I found holy right here in your arms

    For a gay man to hear this in country western language is almost magical. These tattooed country men may not represent my style or way of living, but they mean so much more for their open expression of love. I find that increasingly interesting. People I might have before even imagined as speaking for gay, trans, and other LGBTQ causes, coming forward out of the dark woodwork of the red states, expressing something I had never imagined possible. The LGBTQ community exists everywhere in the cracks of our civilization, and now are coming out to sing and speak their desires. I cried with joy.

 

Los Angeles, April 9, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (April 2025).