{"id":270518,"date":"2026-06-18T04:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/270518\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T04:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:48:09","slug":"dirty-queens-done-dirt-cheap-gayc-dc-hits-with-queer-refresh-of-classic-rockers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/270518\/","title":{"rendered":"Dirty queens done dirt cheap: GayC\/DC hits with queer ‘refresh’ of classic rockers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few tribute acts have expanded beyond their niche as successfully as GayC\/DC<\/a>, whose queer reimagining of AC\/DC has won over fans well beyond LGBTQ spaces.<\/p>\n

The hard-rock group, headlining this weekend\u2019s Pride Fest<\/a> (Sat\/20; DNA Lounge), describes itself as the world\u2019s first all-gay AC\/DC tribute band, although its vocalist, Chris Freeman, prefers a different description.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a refresh, not just a tribute,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Taking songs from one of rock\u2019s most famously heterosexual bands and filtering them through a queer perspective, GayC\/DC keeps AC\/DC\u2019s music largely intact while reimagining some lyrics and stage presentation with equal parts humor, camp, and affection for the source material.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Its shows feature leather, boas, costume changes, and plenty of audience participation, but the musicianship is treated seriously\u2014a choice that was intentional from the beginning.<\/p>\n

The project emerged in 2013 after another band involving several members\u2014an all-gay Go-Go\u2019s<\/a> tribute called The Gay Gay\u2019s\u2014came to an end. When someone jokingly suggested the name GayC\/DC, the group immediately recognized the potential. Just as quickly, they realized the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are probably hundreds of AC\/DC tribute bands,\u201d Freeman says. [San Francisco\u2019s AC\/DShe is another notable example.] \u201cWe knew we had to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to drummer Brian Welch, the band spent months rehearsing before ever playing a public show.<\/p>\n

Sponsored link<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe said we were going to do the music spot on,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to do anything that takes the piss out of one of our favorite bands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The members were all longtime hard-rock and metal fans, and AC\/DC provided common ground. \u201cAC\/DC runs in our DNA,\u201d Welch says.<\/p>\n

Rather than replicating AC\/DC visually, GayC\/DC imagines an alternate version of the band. The music remains recognizable, but the context changes\u2014a formula that has helped win over audiences who might initially be skeptical.<\/p>\n

Freeman describes the formula simply. \u201cAs soon as they hear those guitars, it has to hit them over the head,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd then we hit them with the feathers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along the way, the band has attracted support from several musicians whose records its members grew up listening to. Its videos have featured appearances from King\u2019s X bassist and vocalist dUg Pinnick, Armored Saint singer John Bush, and L.A. Guns bassist Johnny Martin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s \u201cGay Boy Boogie,\u201d a reinterpretation of AC\/DC\u2019s \u201cBad Boy Boogie,\u201d caught the attention of Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, who publicly praised the video after seeing the band\u2019s homage to \u201cWe\u2019re Not Gonna Take It.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeman and Welch also count Styx co-founder Chuck Panozzo among the band\u2019s friends and supporters. Freeman, through his work with Pansy Division<\/a>, also developed a long relationship with Judas Priest singer Rob Halford<\/a> after meeting him at a late-\u201990s performance by Los Angeles queercore band Extra Fancy<\/a> at San Francisco\u2019s now-defunct Transmission Theater.<\/p>\n

Halford<\/a> was on an extended break from Judas Priest at the time and part of industrial metal project 2wo with guitarist John 5 (now a member of M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said, \u2018Look, you\u2019re not in Judas Priest right now, so it\u2019s the perfect time for you to come out,’\u201d Freeman recalls. \u201cSo he did<\/a>, and within a handful of years, he was back in Judas Priest and has been since. He\u2019s the metal god again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most unexpected endorsement came from former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach.<\/p>\n

Bach joined GayC\/DC onstage at the Viper Room in Los Angeles, a performance that helped raise the band\u2019s profile. The appearance carried additional significance because Bach has spent years addressing criticism over a notorious late-\u201980s photograph showing him wearing an anti-gay T-shirt<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bach was roughly \u201c18 and Life\u201d years old at the time, and both Freeman and Welch say he has repeatedly apologized for the incident and has long expressed support for the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted everyone to know that he\u2019s not a homophobe,\u201d Welch says. \u201cHe did a stupid thing in the late \u201880s. He was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Welch, moments like that remain somewhat surreal. \u201cWe never would have thought in our twenties and thirties we\u2019d be playing these venues as out gay musicians,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

That perspective is shaped by the era in which both musicians came out. Freeman moved to San Francisco in 1987 during the height of the AIDS crisis and later helped establish Pansy Division as one of the first openly gay punk bands to achieve national visibility. Welch spent years touring with major rock acts including Extreme as a crew member before coming out publicly.<\/p>\n

For Freeman and Welch, those relationships reflect broader changes within hard rock and metal. Questions about whether the genre could become more welcoming to LGBTQ artists were still being debated in the mid-2000s<\/a>. Two decades later, openly LGBTQ performers remain relatively uncommon in metal, but artists such as Halford have become some of the genre\u2019s most visible advocates, and bands like GayC\/DC have found audiences in spaces that once seemed less welcoming.<\/p>\n

Both men say Pride carries different meanings now than it did when they were younger, but neither sees GayC\/DC primarily as a political project. They describe the band first and foremost as a rock band.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no tapes we\u2019re playing, and there is no Auto-Tune,\u201d Freeman says. \u201cWe\u2019re just getting up there and blowing it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

That emphasis on performance may explain why the group, which recently completed a new video for \u201cWhole Lotta Jose,\u201d a riff on AC\/DC\u2019s \u201cWhole Lotta Rosie,\u201d has found audiences both inside and outside LGBTQ communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the camp elements often attract initial attention, Welch believes the songs are what keep people engaged.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they hear those opening chords,\u201d he says, \u201cthey\u2019re right there with their fists in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

PRIDE FEST: GAYC\/DC June 20. DNA Lounge, SF. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few tribute acts have expanded beyond their niche as successfully as GayC\/DC, whose queer reimagining of AC\/DC has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-270518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}