August 23, 2021
Watch: Brothers Osborne's TJ Osborne Says Coming Out Has Changed His Life
Emell Adolphus READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Coming out can transform lives in unexpected ways for many people. In February of this year, TJ Osborne of the country music duo Brothers Osborne became one of those people.
Coming out in an interview with Time Magazine, Osborne told Gayle King in an interview with "CBS This Morning" that the experience has brought "a sense of purpose" to his life.
"My life has changed in a lot of ways and I've been talking about this at the shows," said Osborne. "I didn't realize what a sense of purpose it would bring to my life to be here. I didn't realize how much it would resonate especially."
After King read a tweet from a fan praising Osborne for helping his son"live in a world where he doesn't have to hide who he is," Osborne answered: "I wasn't thinking about the parents of children who are queer or whatever they are and how that would really help them to help their relationship," he added. "That's something that never dawned on me."
Beyond Osborne's personal transformation since coming out, his visibility as an out gay man has also been a transformation for LGBTQ fans of country music.
"To me, that's worth more than anything than I've ever done," he said. "There are times when I think I've marginalized this part of me so that I feel better about it. And I realize that it is a big part of who I am: The way I think, the way I act, the way I perform. God, think of all the times that we talk about love, and write about love. It's the biggest thing we ever get to feel. And I've kept the veil on [it]."
Since coming out, Osborne said he has been hit by a "tsunami of love" and now his happiness is more valuable than "anything else I'd ever be able to achieve."
"It's a hard thing to describe and a very difficult thing to go through, and I even had a lot of support around me," he said. "But once I finally came out, I didn't really understand the magnitude of how much people cared about me and loved me and supported me."
Watch a clip from the interview below.
