THE GAYEST OF ALL TIME continues Jonny McGovern’s journey into the fabulous fairyland where queens rule, glamour is celebrated, every street is a fashion runway and every corner a dance club.
It’s been ten years since McGovern – affectionately known to fans as The Gay Pimp - released his first music album, DIRTY GAY HITS, a collection of hilarious gay themed songs. It included "Soccer Practice", the song that would make Jonny an international phenomenon after it’s music video was spread virally by e-mail to millions. YouTube didn’t exist at the time.
The music video introduced the world to the colorful antics of Jonny "The Gay Pimp" McGovern and his queer posse, dubbed "Team Pimp". It was added to MTV Europe and MTV Asia and helped land Jonny a role as a commentary contributor on several VH1 shows including Best Week Ever, Totally Gay, and 40 Dumbest Celebrity Quotes. It also earned him a slot on Comedy Central’s all-gay stand-up show Out on the Edge, hosted by Alan Cumming, which brought him to the attention of Rosie O’Donnell, who cast Jonny as a lead player on her LOGO-TV comedy show, The Big Gay Sketch Show.
A slew of comedy-music albums followed, including THIS IS NYC, BITCH! THE EAST VILLAGE MIXTAPE, GAYS GONE WILD, KEEP IT FAGGITY: THE GAY PIMP REMIX PROJECT, and last year’s GAY PIMP.
His latest, THE GAYEST OF ALL TIME, was made possible by the generous donations of Gay Pimp fans who raised over 13 thousand dollars for the project. Jonny has used the funds to create music videos for four of the singles featured on the album: "Sexy Nerd", ‘Modified", "Dickmatized" and "Man Areas". All can be viewed on YouTube.com.
In the coming months, he plans to produce another three music videos. So sit back and buckle yourselves in for a wild ride. Everyone’s favorite Gay Pimp Daddy, Jonny McGovern, is back, bigger and dirtier than ever.
GC: When will The Gay Pimp grow up?
JM: Jonny McGovern has grown up quite a bit. Gay Pimp is still just frolicking down the street with some go-go hoes and he always will. But he’s got a rockin’ beard now.
GC: You have made a career out of being outrageously gay.
JM: I strive to create music that does that expresses gay sexuality and desire in a cheeky, fun and unapologetic way. Some people criticize my songs for being too sexual or making gays look bad but I also get emails from teenagers who tell me my music gave them the confidence to come out and helped them to see gay sexuality as not something to be ashamed of or swept under the rug, but to be celebrated.
GC: Did you always celebrate your gayness?
JM: I certainly went through my own period of denial in my teens. I had no gay role models around to tell me it was ok and cool even to be different; that being gay would be something I eventually wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. I certainly could have used some Jonny McGovern songs back them to let me know that "Likin’ Big Dicks" was a-ok.
GC: Does everybody really want to be G.A.Y., as you say on the album?
JM: The song "G.A.Y" does have a lot of truth to it. Especially in the last few years, a lot of what is huge in pop culture has been heavily influenced by gay club and ballroom culture. From Tyra inspiring girls to be fierce to Rihanna and, of course, Lady Gaga performing straight up drag queen style to even the Jersey Shore dudes and their obsession with muscles and tans. Gay influence is everywhere.
GC: How has your idea of dirty gay fun evolved in the ten years since "Soccer Practice"?
JM: While I have grown as a person and performer over the last ten years, my idea of dirty gay fun remains the same. Gimme a dark bar, some amazing beats, drag queens turning it out on the runway and tons of sexy dudes and I am happy. But what I think is sexy has broadened. While I still love a dirty frat boy on a soccer team, I am also attracted to other types of homos, like bearded tatted up daddies or sexy nerds.
GC: Would you have sung about sexy nerds ten years ago?
JM: As an artist who originated on the internet, I have always depended on the kindness of nerds. Technology, how we communicate and how we get content to an audience, has grown so much and so fast that without a few good nerds, I’d be up the gay creek without a gay paddle. Ten years ago, I checked my email once a week. Now we have email on our phones and we’re all constantly checking the web and tapping apps. I find someone who is master of all that extremely sexy.
GC: Thanks to guys like Darren Cris, 2012 may just be the year of the sexy gay nerd. What do nerds offer that the Soccer Practice muscle jocks do not?
JM: Unlike a muscle jock who puts it all out there, a sexy nerd sort of has their sexuality bubbling under the surface which is even more fun when you get to the bedroom and they let it out. Plus the idea of someone who is smart and sexy and who can do dirty gay stuff with you and then whisper in your ear, "Now I’m gonna fix yer computer" is especially erotic.
GC: Tell us about your new single, #TOTDF.
JM: I came up with #TOTDF (Texting on the Dance Floor) standing in the middle of a club in LA. Looking around, I saw all these guys rockin’ to the music while texting on their phones! It made me think about how things are today. People gather in big groups but spend their time on their phones reading a blog, checkin’ out their Grindr, tweeting and tagging people they are with on Facebook. #TOTDF celebrates all that and also mocks the insanity of it.
GC: What’s your take on mobile technology?
JM: I love my phone and computer like everybody else. But long gone are the days when you can pretend you’re not available ‘cause every damn message is sent right to the phone in our pockets.
GC: Is it killing nightlife?
JM: The constant availability of sexy gentleman is certainly convenient but it is taking its toll on nightlife. People used to have to go out to meet people. Now you can order dick right up to yer front door and never have to actually go out and talk to anyone.
GC: What’s the biggest misperception people have about the Gay Pimp?
JM: I think a lot of times people take what I am doing too seriously. All my songs are meant to be taken with a wink. I don’t take myself seriously as a pop star or think that I’m really a gay pimp. I’m a comedian and it’s all jokes to me. What I have done with my music, beginning with "Soccer Practice", is to flip the super masculine elements and images of straight pop culture and pop music and give ‘em a subversive dirty gay twist. If yer truly offended by it you should lighten the fuck up.
GC: Speaking of being offensive... do you worry that "Modified" might be seen as offensive to middle-aged housewives?
JM: It shouldn’t. "Modified" is kind of an anthem for doing things yer own way and fuckin’ what everybody else thinks. I’ve only gotten mad love from all the middle age ladies that have heard the song. I’ve been getting reports that aerobics teachers are even playing it in their classes. People tweet me all the time to tell me they’re at the gym, doin’ it "Modified"!
GC: Where did the idea for "Modified" come from?
JM: When I first moved to Hollywood, I tagged along with comedian Nadya Ginsburg to her aerobics class at the Hollywood YMCA. The class was very intense and everyone was giving it their all. Then I noticed this fabulous creature in the front row: a middle-aged lady with a high Madonna Truth or Dare style pony tail, super tight spandex body suit and leg warmers. She was doing all the moves the class was doing but in the most relaxed way. She was doing everything "Modified" which is aerobics speech for doing things low impact. I was obsessed with her spunk. I went home and wrote a song about her. Then Nadya and I collaborated on an amazing music video where Melanie Hutsell (from Saturday Night Live and Bridesmaids) starred as "Modified" and lots of LA nightlife superstars like Jackie Beat, Calpernia Addams and Mario Diaz made cameos.
GC: Are your songs based on reality or fantasy?
JM: Though they’re obvious fantasy, most songs do have a nugget of truth in them.
GC: Have you ever truly been "Dickmatized"?
JM: There was a dude I was hooking up with who was so sexy and so good in bed that it didn’t matter to me how wrong he was for me. He kept telling me things that should have sent up red flags. He was still dating someone back in New York, he was unemployed, a hooker - but that dick was so good! I’d be cooking in the kitchen or getting ready for a show, having dirty gay flashbacks like one of them ho’s on LOST. I continued texting him for sexy times. I eventually had to delete his number from my phone cause I realized I was truly "dickmatized".
GC: So you wrote a song about it?
JM: You bet and when it came out so many people, ladies included, told me about their own experiences of being "Dickmatized" by the wrong sexy guy. There’s even a video on Youtube where Jill Scott talks about being dickmatized.
GC: The video gloriously depicts the whole "Gay Pimp World" you have created.
JM: The world I created was a combination of all the things I loved as a young gay living in NYC through my 20’s and early thirties: the drag queens, the bangin’ beats and all the go-go boys....
GC: It’s almost a gay Disneyland. Has it become real life for you?
JM: I’ve definitely had my moments where real life is a lil’ like my music videos. I certainly do hang out with drag queens and go-go boys and if ya get a couple cocktails in me, I get a bit of that "gay pimp" swag. I rarely break in to song while walking down the street, though.
GC: What have you learned in the ten years you have been in the entertainment business?
JM: Not to wait for permission to create my work: to just do it. Not to wait for someone else to create opportunities for me: to make them myself. To surround myself with the greatest and gayest, most creative people I can and collaborate with them. Share the spotlight with those you love. And definitely don’t make crazy drag queens angry.
GC: What’s next for The Gay Pimp?
JM: I’m shooting two pilots: a TV version of my long running "Gay Pimpin’" podcast and a making of the video show called "Jonny McGovern’s Super Gay Video Project". It will feature other gay artists and their videos. I’ll soon be releasing a "Gayest Of All Time" video special featuring all the sexy dudes and queens from all the music videos. Plus more music videos... and I’m preparing to perform my stand up and songs all over the country. I’m comin’ to yer town and I’mma make sweet lurve to ya.