LIKE
THAT
OLD
country
song,
gay
musician
Rufus
Wainwright
was
looking
for
love
in
all
the
wrong
places
when
he
arrived
in
New
York
City
in
the
summer
of
2002.
“I
was
going
to
have
the
greatest
summer
of
my
life
in
my
mind,”
Wainwright
says
about
the
period
before
the
creation
of
his
newest
CD,
“Want
One,”
which
hits
stores
Tuesday,
Sept.
23.
“It
was
supposed
to
be
the
summer
of
love
or
the
summer
of
forgetting,”
he
told
the
Blade
this
week.
“I
came
to
New
York
and
I
got
an
apartment
and
I
proceeded
to
do
that.
And
it
went
in
the
opposite
direction.
It
was
a
total
nightmare.”
Recently,
Wainwright,
who
is
Canadian,
has
been
talking
publicly
about
his
time
spent
on
drugs
—
including
crystal
meth,
ecstasy,
cocaine,
and
ketamine
—
the
anonymous
sex
he
had
while
on
drug
binges,
and
his
subsequent
month-long
stay
at
a
drug
rehab
center.
In
“Go
or
Go
Ahead,”
a
song
on
the
new
album
that
Wainwright
says
was
inspired
by
his
troubles,
he
sings:
“Guardian
angels
who
left
me
stranded
/
It
was
worth
it,
feeling
abandoned
/
Makes
one
hardened
but
what
has
happened
to
love?”
Wainwright,
30,
who
has
been
openly
gay
since
he
was
a
teenager,
has
turned
from
addiction
back
to
love,
one
of
the
themes
of
his
previous
two
albums
—
“Poses”
in
2001
and
his
self-titled
debut
in
1998.
After
emerging
from
rehab,
he
went
into
the
studio
with
producer
Marius
de
Vries,
who
worked
with
him
on
the
“Moulin
Rouge”
soundtrack
and
has
collaborated
with
everyone
from
David
Bowie
to
Madonna.
What
ensued
was
a
productive
torrent
of
songwriting
that
produced
enough
tracks
for
two
albums
—
the
current
one
and
“Want
Two,”
scheduled
to
be
released
this
spring.
The
first
installment
features
Wainwright’s
trademark
eclectic
style,
which
blends
complicated
arrangements
and
a
classical
flair
with
a
modern
pop
sensibility.
Wainwright
talked
about
his
life
today
in
an
interview
with
the
Blade.
The
Washington
Blade:
Musically,
how
is
this
album
different
from
the
last
two?
Rufus
Wainwright:
Basically,
for
the
last
two
albums,
I
was
really
Napoleonic
about
what
I
wanted
and
about
how
I
wanted
things
to
sound.
But,
this
album,
due
to
the
fact
that
I
had
some
other
issues
to
deal
with
unrelated
to
show
business
and
because
I
wanted
to
enjoy
my
life,
I
decided
to
relax
a
little
and
allow
other
people’s
ideas
and
took
a
more
general
approach
to
the
process.
I
think
it’s
more
organic,
but
also
vague.
But
it
managed
to
be
more
enormous
sounding
than
the
last
one.
Blade:
Thematically,
and
in
terms
of
the
lyrics,
what
is
the
difference?
Wainwright:
I
think
it’s
a
lot
more
personal.
Each
song
is
about
an
actual
event
or
a
person
or
an
idea.
It’s
very
literal,
whereas
“Poses”
was
hidden
by
some
gauze
or
something.
It
very
much
focuses
on
a
time
period
starting
where
“Poses”
left
off,
but
where
there
was
a
crash,
the
fall,
and
redemption
in
the
end.
The
last
album
was
like
a
mountain
and
this
is
more
like
a
valley.
Blade:
Generally,
where
does
your
inspiration
for
writing
songs
come
from?
Wainwright:
I
basically
have
a
disease
called
musical
mania.
Songwriting
for
me
has
always
been
kind
of
akin
to
a
bodily
function
in
terms
of
how
I
do
it.
Since
both
my
parents
[folk
singers
Loudon
Wainwright
III
and
Kate
McGarrigle,
who
plays
on
the
new
album]
are
songwriters
and
my
sister
[Martha
Wainwright,
who
sings
on
the
new
album
and
tours
with
him],
I
think
in
a
lot
of
ways
it’s
a
form
of
communication
within
my
family.
Blade:
You’ve
said
that
this
album
just
came
to
you
quickly.
Why
do
you
think
it
was
so
easy
to
write?
Wainwright:
It
wasn’t
easy
to
write,
it
was
made
very
quickly.
I
really
do
believe
that
at
some
point
before
this
album
some
greater
power
said,
“Focus
on
your
own
life
and
your
basic
human
needs
and
what
you
need
to
get
past
this
knot
in
the
road,
and
don’t
worry
about
the
record
at
all.
You
take
care
of
that,
and
we’ll
take
care
of
the
rest.”
Blade:
Has
your
artistic
process
changed
at
all?
Wainwright:
I
still
had
the
final
word
in
the
end
and
working
with
Marius
de
Vries
was
incredible.
Having
a
great
producer
like
that,
there
was
a
clear
chain
of
command.
I’m
pretty
respected
musically
these
days,
which
isn’t
a
great
feat
considering
what’s
out
there.
Blade:
How
did
you
get
respect?
Wainwright:
I
just
practiced
piano.
I
think
what
I
considered
that
logical
way
to
have
a
career,
which
is
learn
your
instrument
well
and
write
as
classic
songs
as
you
can,
somehow
turned
out
to
be
very
counterculture.
Blade:
Your
music
has
always
been
classically
influenced
but
the
lyrics
are
always
rooted
in
the
modern.
How
do
you
balance
the
two?
Wainwright:
Classical
music
is
all
about
balance
anyway
and
if
you
write
something
with
a
classical
frame
of
mind,
whatever
era
that
might
be,
the
music
has
to
be
pretty
sturdy.
Therefore,
lyrics,
in
my
opinion,
are
very
important
to
make
a
song
a
song.
But
if
the
music
is
steady,
you
can
put
any
lyrics
to
it.
Blade:
What
do
you
think
about
electronic
music,
and
the
dance
music
that
gay
men
are
stereotypically
supposed
to
like?
 |
| Gay
musician
Rufus
Wainwright,
who
recently
spent
a
month
in
a
drug
rehabilitation
facility,
says:
‘I’m
looking
for
someone
to
fall
in
love
with
me
at
this
point.
When
you
do
a
lot
of
drugs
and
you’re
looking
for
love,
you
fall
in
love
with
death.’
(Photo
courtesy
of
the
Associated
Press) |
Wainwright:
Honestly,
I
...
