Brian Falduto Talks Moving Beyond 'School of Rock' Fame and Making Unabashedly 'Gay Country' Music
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
When Brian Falduto played the role of aspiring stylist Billy, a.k.a. "Fancy Pants," in 2003's School of Rock as a child, he didn't share the character's Liza Minnelli obsession — because he didn't know who she was.
"The costume designer was like, 'OK, well that can't happen.' He was this gay man, and he pulled me aside and was like, 'Here are some articles to read before we shoot today,'" Falduto, now 30, recalls to PEOPLE.
He was much more interested in stars like Faith Hill at the time — "My first-ever album was Faith" — which makes sense, as he's now a country musician whose debut album Gay Country dropped Friday. The project is a testament to how far he's come since starring alongside Jack Black in School of Rock, as he was labeled "the gay kid" long before even thinking about his own sexuality.
RELATED: Brian Falduto — AKA Billy from School of Rock — Details New Song About Feeling 'Fed Up with Dating'
Collin Keller Brian Falduto
Growing up in New Jersey to a teacher mother and dentist father, Falduto was the unexpected performer of the house who sang in church and halted family dinners to perform in the living room. He took a liking to country music from a very young age, with Hill introducing him to the genre and Carrie Underwood's American Idol stint solidifying it.
He began taking vocal lessons as a young child, but his big break came while on a family vacation to Aruba, when he followed a newscaster and told him, "I want to be on camera."
His mom apologized to the reporter, but he felt that her son was "clearly a star" and put her in contact with a talent manager in New York who soon booked Falduto's first-ever audition — for School of Rock.
Collin Keller Brian Falduto
"I walked into the room and sang a boy soprano rendition of 'Send in the Clowns.' So, I'm pretty sure that's the reason I was cast. My character didn't exist before that audition," he recalls.
Filming the movie was an extremely positive experience, as both Black and director Richard Linklater fostered its message of unabashed self-expression on the set. "I was just this flamboyant, eccentric, excited, sassy kid, and so that's what I did on screen, innocently," says Falduto. After the movie was released, however, he was ridiculed for the character's stereotypically homosexual characteristics.
"People seek to label something they don't understand, and this was 2003. There wasn't a lot of queer representation, so I think people just instantly labeled me gay," he says. "I didn't even know what being gay was other than that you didn't want to be called it."
Collin Keller Brian Falduto
After School of Rock, Falduto took part in many musical theater productions and stood out from his classmates as one of the only country music fans. He then studied theater at Wagner College and came out as gay during his senior year, shortly before getting a job at a local country radio station, where he worked for four years.
RELATED: 'School of Rock' Actor Brian Falduto Was Homophobic Toward Himself After Playing 'the Gay Kid'
During that time, he became sick of the constant audition grind and decided to venture into writing and recording his own songs. "I was going through a really tough breakup and didn't know how to process it. I turned to the guitar — it was like something out of a movie — and was like, 'I have to get this out of me somehow,'" he explains.
After two years of playing for himself, he shared his compositions with friends and was encouraged to become a professional musician. Knowing the difficulties that queer-identifying country stars like Ty Herndon have dealt with in the music industry after coming out, Falduto wasn't sure he was going to release songs specifically about gay love. But he quickly realized the music needed to be honest.
Collin Keller Brian Falduto
"I was like, 'I want to hear the gay version of the stuff that I listened to when I was a kid,'" he says, crediting artists from Rascal Flatts to Zac Brown Band with inspiring his sound, which marries cheeky queer lyrics with classic country tropes like drinking beer and driving trucks.
In order to help jump-start his career — and holding true to the nurturing relationship they had on set — Black, Linklater and School of Rock producer Scott Rudin helped fund the music video for Falduto's emotional 2020 single, "God Loves Me Too." Black has since aided the performer in finding success on TikTok, as he made a viral video to "Same Old Country Love Song," the first single released from Gay Country.
"He just wants to see us succeed," says Falduto of the superstar actor. "I think School of Rock sat as something really important to him, so being part of that experience, we're bonded in a way."
Collin Keller Brian Falduto
The singer-songwriter has been working on Gay Country for the past three years, drawing from real-life experiences to write its lyrics, largely about romance. "They're all just unhealthy relationships I've been in that have inspired my songs," says Falduto, who's now based in New York City and currently dating. "I'm in the first healthy relationship I've ever been in — and I don't even know how to write a song about it."
Ahead of the album's release, the musician dropped a music video for "Same Old Country Love Song," which pays homage to several stars who shaped his love of the genre. In the clip, he channels iconic looks from the videos for Hill's "Breathe," Twain's "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" and Underwood's "Before He Cheats," among others.
It's a full-circle moment for Falduto, as he fully embraces the parts of himself he was teased about as a kid — and plays with style, which would make Billy proud. "I've been inspired by country music females for a long time, but I think I neglected to say that so boldly because I appear as male," he says. "Dressing up as them was a cool way to be like, 'I actually can be inspired by this.' Gender doesn't need to be an obstruction to that."
