Tyler Childers 'Honored' That His 'In Your Love' Music Video Has Encouraged Fans to Come Out: 'The Power of Music'
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Tyler Childers' music video stars Colton Haynes and James Scully as ill-fated lovers in 1950s Appalachia
Frank Hoensch/Redferns
Tyler Childers performing in January 2020 in Berlin.Earlier this summer, singer-songwriter Tyler Childers introduced his new album with an emotional music video for his single “In Your Love” that told the love story of a pair of gay coal miners in 1950s Appalachia.
In the two months since, the singer-songwriter, 32, says he’s received a number of responses from people moved by the video — and though he had to wade through some “really ugly comments,” the majority have been “overwhelmingly more positive than negative.”
“[I’ve heard from] people [who] didn’t really ever see themselves in the music that was constantly around them,” he told The Bitter Southerner in a new interview. “This is the first time that they’ve felt seen.”
Childers also noted that coming out stories shared with him by fans were especially meaningful.
“To be that encouragement that someone needs to get one step further to self-actualizing - that’s the power of music, and I’m just really honored that that whole entire piece resonated in that way,” he said.
The music video stars Colton Haynes and You star James Scully as coal miners who fall in love at work. In flashbacks, viewers watch as their characters go on secret dates in the forest, where they pick four-leaf clovers.
When they’re exposed as a couple by a fellow miner, and are attacked because of it, they leave town, building a happy life together filled with dinner parties and intimate moments. Though their farm is thriving, Scully’s character — who’s been fighting back coughs — grows ill with black lung, and their happily ever after is cut short as he dies in Haynes’ arms on a porch bench.
The video ends with Haynes, now an old man, sitting on the same bench holding a four-leaf clover. On Instagram, the actor called the video “one of my favorite projects I’ve ever been a part of.”
Childers told the outlet that his cousin, who is gay, inspired the music video, as the “Feathered Indians” singer wanted him to be able to see himself in a country music video.
The video was written and creative directed by current Poet Laureate of Kentucky Silas House, who also wrote the Bitter Southerner article on Childers.
The Grammy-nominated musician is no stranger to weighing in on social issues through music; in 2020, he released the largely instrumental Long Violent History, with a title track that railed against police brutality against Black men and women.
“By being vocal in the small ways that I have, it might give some of those people that are sitting on the fence wondering exactly how they should feel about it… it might push them in a direction of realizing that maybe the people around them and how they think isn’t all that there is,” he told the outlet. “To pander or cater to people that I don’t necessarily agree with, politically or philosophically … that’s never really steered me as an artist.”
The star released his new album Rustin’ in the Rain earlier this month.
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