“Luck ain’t a lady, but neither am I” is the rallying cry from members of the music group The Cowgays as they shimmy and shake their way through the bar in their most recent single, “Good Hoedown.” The Cowgays, Nashville’s hottest and gayest supergroup, is made up of country music luminaries Adam Mac, Chris Housman and Brooke Eden. All three are successful stars in their own right, with chart toppers aplenty between them, and they all have a mission to make country music more inclusive for queer audiences. This shared goal, combined with good old-fashioned friendship, led them to create the supergroup that has the country music corner of the internet commenting with posts like “This is my kind of church,” “Gay gospel nostalgia isn’t a feeling I’ve had before” and “Whatever this is, I love it.”
Housman (who met with Out In Jersey for our June/July issue) and Mac had been best friends for about a decade before meeting Eden. Eden, an admirer of Housman’s music, reached out through TikTok to connect. “I was literally fangirling because I was genuinely a massive fan of Brooke’s,” Housman said of the initial interaction. A short time later, Eden was looking for queer couples to be featured in an upcoming music video, and Housman enthusiastically recommended Mac and his partner, certain they’d all become quick friends. He could not have been more right.
Their musical union started as any good union should — in Tulum, Mexico, with plenty of tequila. “I don’t know who started it, but one person started singing, and then the other two chimed in,” Eden said of their origin story. “We were in a stairwell in our Airbnb. All of a sudden, we’re like, ‘Wait, did we just become a family band?’”
After the initial adrenaline from that Tulum singalong faded, the three decided to make a genuine go as a supergroup. “We’ve really spent the last two years discovering our sound, what the band is and what our stories are,” Mac said. “Once we started writing together I think is when we realized we had something really special.”
That special something is what spawned their first single, “Wish I Wasn’t Gay,” a delightful tongue-in-cheek romp around religious oppression, with some sparkling three-part harmonies to boot. Mac and Eden were quick to credit Housman with the genesis of the song. “It kind of seemed too controversial, or too much for a solo project,” Housman said of the idea. “We were going to try to write something like ‘Pray the Gay to Stay’ or something like that. But then Adam said, ‘Chris, you have that one idea. That’s kind of a classic folky thing, to repeat words and add some more.’ I love the almost clickbait of a gay trio with their song ‘Wish I Wasn’t Gay.’ With severe religious undertones, the camp and the comedy of it, it was probably the most fun write I’ve ever been in. We were just laughing the whole time.”
They followed this up with “Good Hoedown,” a line dance for the girls, gays, theys and, if you watch the music video, Drag Race star Kylie Sonique Love. It plays just like your favorite ‘90s country track, but with an unmistakably queer edge. “We were really trying to lean into the ‘90s nostalgia that we all grew up loving so much. And so many people, especially queer people, love country music,” said Mac, citing their sonic influences to the likes of The Chicks, Garth Brooks and Shania Twain. “Now that we’ve grounded ourselves in ‘90s country, we’re just thinking, what are our favorite ‘90s country songs? How can we rediscover those in a new way that feels queer and feels also like true to who we are and then also pays homage to the music that we grew up on?”
Outside the group, the trio has bustling solo careers. This past winter, Housman was a nominee for GLAAD’s Outstanding Breakthrough Music Artist award. His songs “Blueneck,” “Guilty As Sin” and “Bible Belt” speak directly to his lived experience as a gay man in a historically conservative space.
“It’s considered so taboo to talk about politics in a country song in Nashville. There are just so many things that we’re kind of innately told not to touch — politics and being queer being two of those things.” Despite initial reservations, Housman has found the public response to be largely positive and affirming, and that has given him renewed confidence.
“I would encourage every queer artist who’s worried about being themselves or writing what they feel to go and look at the comments on (my video for ‘Blueneck’). And remember that you are changing people’s lives if you are telling your truth because that could be their truth as well.”
Eden, a 2023 nominee for GLAAD’s Outstanding Breakthrough Music Artist award, joined the 2025 lineup for World Pride in DC as the only country music artist. “There’s so much to be said for the community there. It was such a juxtaposition of feelings.” Having welcomed a son just before the 2024 election, Eden understood the complexity of celebrating queer joy in such a contentious city.
It was such an emotional stage to be on because the queer community is so well represented there. It was literally somebody from every walk of life, every section of the LGBTQ+ community. It was just such an honor to play that. It’s to this day my favorite show I’ve ever played. It felt like such a protest.”
Mac’s solo career, with songs like his recent single “Hate to See Me Coming,” has taken him to an unlikely place — the gaming world. His own line-dance boogie, “Dust Off Your Boots,” caught the attention of none other than the developer of the online video game “Fortnite.” “It was the wildest, most universal moment. We were literally trying to figure out how we were going to record my album, Southern Spectacle, and we needed a certain amount of money. And days later, we got an email from Epic Games that said, ‘We want to feature “Dust Off Your Boots” as an emote in “Fortnite.” And it truly changed the trajectory of my last year and a half. Because after that happened, we were able to fund my album and do all of these things we were just not sure were going to happen. And that moment and that opportunity really came at the perfect time.” Housman added: “I’ve played ‘Fortnite’ with Adam quite a bit, and he’s so good!”
The friendship The Cowgays share is palpable; they describe themselves as long-lost siblings, and it shows. When asked about what strengths they each bring to the band, they were quick to turn the focus onto one another. “Chris is truly the cornerstone of The Cowgays in a lot of ways,” Mac said. “His musicality is what he brings to this band, and we need it desperately. He is the one who’s finding all of our harmonies, finding our parts. He plays every instrument, or he’ll just pick it up and figure out how to play it.”
Housman explained why he admires Eden. “Every major influence from country, for me, has always been a female, and always will. So to have that in our band makes so much sense, too. I mean, she is literally more talented than Shania, The Chicks, and Carrie Underwood combined.”
Eden called Adam the group’s king and queen. “He’s a little bit cowgirl, a little bit cowboy, you know? He brings so much energy to our friend group and on stage as well. He is so electric. It’s like being on stage with Elton John or Prince. You just can’t not have a good time when you’re around him.”
“We’re obsessed with each other, if you can’t tell!” they all agreed, beaming with pride at one another’s accomplishments.
Now that they have gotten the ground underneath them, they are hard at work touring and recording new music. Having arrived just in time for Pride Month, their newest single, “Kids Like Us,” is what they describe as their “get to know us” song. “It’s a call to action to nurture your inner child and to be all of the things that we wish we could have been growing up,” Mac said.
Despite being only a 3-month-old band, the group’s energy, friendship and shared mission make them impossible to ignore, leaving no doubt that this family band will be roping in a gayer, more inclusive country music audience for years to come.
