Steve Grand talks about why his song “All-American Boy” is about a gay guy falling for a straight friend

There is plenty of people sniping about Steve Grand’s YouTube smash All-American Boy being about a gay guy (Grand) falling for a straight friend and getting his heart broken.

The feeling among some is haven’t we gays come far enough where we can actually fall in love with another gay guy? Why write about unrequited love when so many of us are out now?

It never occurred to me to even have a problem with the song for that reason because it’s happened to me – more than once – and I know it has happened to a lot of my friends – especially when we were younger.

Anyway, Out.com asked Steve why he didn’t just make a video about a gay guy not loving him back.

‘Because this was my experience growing up. Many times,’ he says. ‘I grew up in a predominantly heterosexual world. Most of the crushes I had were straight men. Gay men were not visible. I wanted to tell a story that had been burning inside me.’

‘It’s a universal human story – unrequited love. Gay or straight, we’ve all been there. When I started writing music, I was always writing about that. I was always crushing on someone I couldn’t be with.’

Steve, who is just 23, has quickly attained hunk status with a muscular body and handsome face. But he was not always so coveted.

‘You should see my pictures in high school. I was kind of weird,’ he admits. ‘I had long hair that covered my face. I’m passionate, so everything I was feeling was always played out on a grand scale. I wore the same Paul McCartney T-shirt every day. I’d go home and wash it, then wear it again.’

Steve