Dustin Lance Black's 'Rock Out' Uncovers Queer Survival in Rock and Punk

Filmmaker Dustin Lance Black has turned to music history for his latest project, a documentary series that examines how queer artists and industry figures survived and found one another during the 1960s and 1970s, when homosexuality was treated as both a crime and a mental illness.

Titled "Rock Out," the four-part limited series draws on interviews with musicians and insiders including Roger Daltrey, Dolly Parton, Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner, Peter Brown and glam punk artist Jayne County. It asks whether queerness ever had a place in the hard, hyper-masculine worlds of heavy metal, punk and rock and roll, and profiles figures from Little Richard and Ma Rainey to David Bowie, The Who and The Ramones who concealed their identities to stay safe.

Black, an actor and Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Milk," said the film grew out of his brother's search for community. Recalling that his brother moved to California to live with him and asked where he could find gay people like himself, Black said he gave an answer he would always regret: "I don't know." His brother never found that community, and Black believes the ways he coped with lacking a tribe led to his early death. When he heard there was interest in making a documentary that could answer that question, Black said he felt a duty to take it on.

He pointed to the risks faced by figures such as Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, noting that the more successful Epstein was at raising the band's profile, the more dangerous his position became. Being out at the time, Black said, could mean rejection, loss of work, alienation from family, or worse — institutionalisation, electroshock, lobotomisation, or prison, since it was a felony in both the UK and the US. He contrasted that with the courage of Elton John, whose gradual coming out was accepted because his music was so beloved, opening doors for others.

According to Black, the men who lived in the closet found each other anyway, forming a secret support network that some in the documentary call the Velvet Mafia. But the interviews also turned to the present, and Black said the conversations shifted toward a shrinking safe space for queer people after decades of growing acceptance in pop, rock, heavy metal and punk. He called that turn heartbreaking.

Music plays a central role in the film. Black said many artists featured — among them the Beatles, the Bee Gees and The Who — gave permission for their music at little or no cost after seeing a cut. He described Queen and Elton John as the only two notable holdouts, a refusal he said he could not quite make sense of. The soundtrack also features an original drum score by Patty Schemel, the lesbian drummer for Hole.

"Rock Out" debuts on Sunday, September 20 on Revry, with a new episode each Sunday through October 11.