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He's a buff, punk rocking muscle daddy who's equally at home singing jazz songs and wearing leather. With a new CD on the way, Chicago singer-songwriter SCOTT FREE is an artist marching to the beat of his own drum - and we dig his rhythm! By KEN KNOX "I don't want to scare people," Scott Free tells me over the phone on a lazy Sunday afternoon at his Chicago home. He's responding to questions about his appearance, that of a shit-kickin' linebacker who looks like he could be Henry Rollins' brother. It's a look that could make some gay me swoon and others cower in fear. It's also a look that give singer and songwriter Free a persona that he can use to his advantage, especially when dealing with nongay crowds. "I love to play to straight audiences, actually, because I love to fuck with them," he confesses with a chuckle, hip to the notion that hetero audiences probably aren't expecting songs about gay liberation and sex in bathhouses from someone who looks like him. Of course, confounding expectations is what Free does best. Whether it's singing a punk song with an acoustic guitar or crooning a jazz cabaret tune with nothing but a piano to accompany him, Scott Free is unconventional and versatile. His musical legacy includes a stint as "the first white rapper" (his 1984 video 'Beat the Rap' was once in rotation on Black Entertainment Television), a house music hit (under the name Transient, his song "Higher" briefly charted on the European dance charts), and two CDs of hard-driving, genre-jumping music by an openly gay man singing (and in some cases, bellowing) about the issues that matter to him. With a third CD, 'They Call Me Mr. Free', due out later this year on his own Leather/Western Records, Free continues to crank up his amp in support of being out, loud and proud. Having just finished his annual queer singer-songwriter fair, the Queer Is Folk Festival at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, Free took some time out to chat with UNZIPPED about body snobbery, anonymous sex in bathhouses and, most importantly, his favorite Village Person. KK: In your song 'Just Don't Touch Me' you sing "you can fuck me, just don't touch me." I think most guys would have a hard time keeping their hands off you, so what's up with that? (Laughs) SF: I guess that's the best way I could say "Just make it sex." KK: Do you think some guys have a problem separating love and sex? SF: I guess from day one I understood the separation, because it was obvious to me .And I think we just need to realize that love ain't gonna happen without the sex being there to begin with, so recognize it for what it is. It's Mother Nature's way of getting people together. KK: And this is why I love Mother Nature. So, on "Rejection" you attack body snobbery and looks-elitism among gay men by vowing to sleep with every bowlegged, bucktoothed guy at the sex club. I have to ask: Did you ever follow through with that pledge? SF: You know, I did. I felt guilty that I wrote a song and didn't live up to it, so I went ahead and did it. (Laughs) I didn't spend the whole night in the bathhouse. It was nerve-wracking at first, but then I thought, 'you know what? This is really cool." And I started to realize that being specific about wanting the perfect chest or abs or whatever it is we want…that's our own self-image problem, because it isn't about that at all. I found it to be liberating. Gay men can be so cruel, and it's so pointless. And I really did learn a lesson. We're just people; get over it. After that I had much more of an appreciation for just maleness. KK: Are you a sex club aficionado? SF: Well, I have a partner now, so I don't really have time for bathhouses anymore. I did my part for the betterment of society. (Laughs) KK: Your independent record label is named Leather/Western Records. Are you a cowhide-lovin', man-ropin' cowboy, or do you just play one in your songs? SF: You know what I am? I'm a lover of the '70s. (The label name) is a reference to the golden age, when (certain kinds of gay bars were called) leather/western bars. They don't really exist anymore. So that's an ode to the Village People era. KK: Did you have a favorite Village Person? SF: Ooh, the lead singer, but I heard later that he was straight. That was a bummer. KK: You're the type of guy who, if another dude were to run into you in a dark alley, he would either run like hell or drop to his knees. Which would you prefer? SF: Oh, I'm all about the love, so I'd definitely prefer them on their knees. KK: Do you find that your shit-kicker-next-door persona predetermines how audiences relate to your music? SF: Sometimes. When I perform at a straight venue, they don't expect "gay music" to come out of a guy like me. So it's really fun to get up there and scream 'you can fuck me', or 'yeah, I'm a faggot; you wanna fight about it?" They get really confused? (Laughs) But after a while they really love it. KK: OK, on to sex. Are you as aggressive in bed as your music suggests you might be? SF: I'm definitely into extreme role-playing. Fucking with the mind is my favorite kind of sexual activity. It's about communication between two people - or more that two people. KK: Touche. So what do you find sexy in a guy? SF: Style. I like people who are very assured of who they are. I like self-confidence. I like guys who get a buzz on existence, like they're really, really in the moment. That turns me on. KK: If you were to write a musical score to a gay porn flick, what would it sound like. SF: Hmmm, I think what I would do is make music out of the grunts and groans. It would be more about the noise. Kind of constructionist sex noises. KK: Arty! Well, since we're on the topic of sex, what does it take to get you unzipped? SF: I like mutual aggression. I like a guy to be aggressive, but I have to be aggressive towards him as well. It's an instantaneous kind of reaction toward each other. Like you just know. That's hot. Sure we dig his music and his hard-rockin' body. But we have extra respect for any dude who features a picture of a glory hole on the cover of one album and a man mummy with a hard-on on the next. Rock on, Scott!!
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