"And The Truth Shall Set You Free..."

Christian Musician Comes Out as Gay and HIV-Positive Folk Singer

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Byron Rice is both reinvented and still the same sentimental musician his fans fell in love with.

Diane Anderson-Minshall
January 26, 2015


For nearly a decade, Byron Keith was a star in the contemporary Christian music scene — during the industry’s heyday in Nashville — with tens of thousands of fans in the U.S. and abroad. He toured the world, released eight albums, got married, had children, and then came a public divorce and outing as a gay man. He disappeared in 2005, but to the excitement of his die-hard fans, he reappeared in 2012 with new music — this time in the Americana folk fusion genre — and a new moniker, Byron Rice. We chat with Rice about his life, his new album (out early this year), and being a poz performer.

Tell me about going on hiatus.

My wife and I had been working through the process of [divorce] and my obligations as a Christian country artist. Unfortunately, my accountability pastor decided to spread the word, and so it was a hard last year between us. So, between being told I wasn’t a man of God anymore, and that I wasn’t welcome at a lot of churches because I’d gotten divorced — they didn’t even know I was also dealing with the fact that I was gay, and we were trying to deal with that issue as well — it was definitely a hard time. I just basically didn’t have anything relevant to say anymore, because I’d been beaten down by so many people.

That must have been tough for your wife as well.

Yeah. We spent two years really going through the process of making sure that was what we wanted. We have two daughters, so we wanted to make sure that they were of the appropriate age too, for us to separate — so that they could understand what was going on. She and I are good friends, so that helps the process a lot.

You acted while on hiatus, but, ironically, when you did the musical Rent, which is about HIV and AIDS, a costar found out you were HIV-positive and had some objections to touching you.

Correct. That kind of put me back in a spiral. I felt basically, right back in the same place I was when I left the Christian music industry. I felt I didn’t have a place to fit now in the acting community. Through that, I kind of started to write a lot more. And then I met my best friend, good friend, Kevin Garrett, who also is my manager. He had a studio and wanted to start putting an album together. I had already written a few songs, so we started putting some songs together and it wound up becoming an album.

You’ve been working through Kevin’s label and now you’re signing with a major label, Warner Nashville, to re-release Lost in the Woods. Does the title allude to how you felt?

For me, Lost in the Woods is about [when] I had to go and find my space, my spiritual space, and my own personal space. My friend had invited me out to an event in the woods here in Tennessee with a group of very loving hippies. And through that experience and sharing music and all of that, it was the beginning steps of me starting to come back to realizing that I had a lot more to say. That I was relevant and that I did have something that was about my life experience that would help other people.

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Good Luck Bryan

"Fear Eats the Soul"