Ashlee is not my beard, says Fall Out Boy Pete
Fall Out Boy front man Pete Wentz, well known for courting the limelight, has spoken to a US gay mag about making out with boys, his hatred of homophobia and the constant rumours he might be into men.
He has joined the long history of rock stars playing with ambiguity and said it feels it is easier to say he is gay than deny it.
After Wentz gave an interview in which he talked about making out with guys, one tabloid reported that he’d been banned from Christmas dinner with the Simpson family.
“That one was such bullshit,” he told Out magazine.
“When I said that I make out with dudes, there was a slight sense of sexual rebellion in that.
“And I probably even made it a bigger deal than it was.”
Wentz, 29, added: “Whenever you say that homophobia is stupid, you just get called gay.
“There is a sense of self-empowerment or recapturing who you are by people calling you ‘fag,’ and being like, ‘Yeah, I am a fag.’ Even though you’re not. What does somebody respond?”
The pop star, who impressed some gay fans when pictures of his penis, which he took, were discovered online, laughed off suggestions that his relationship with pop star Ashlee Simpson is a sham. The couple married earlier this year.
“Yeah, ‘She’s his beard,’?” he anticipates people saying, rolling his eyes. “I couldn’t imagine living a double life for this long.”
Wentz did admit that the celebrity grind and the constant gossup can get to him.
“Ambiguity makes you a lightning rod for people to hate you,” he said.
“Some days I wake up and I couldn’t be bothered at all. Some days you Google yourself and you can’t eat.”
“We appreciate the knowing, deliberate way that Pete Wentz subverts the rules,” writes Out Editor in Chief Aaron Hicklin in the issue.
“There is a long history of rock stars playing with sexuality, but Wentz takes it further because he knows the distinctions are artificial and largely meaningless.”
Out magazine is on sale in the US on July 8th.
