Mere hours after singer-songwriter Steve Grand released his self-funded, deeply emotional, and innocently sexy music video “All-American Boy,” he’d scored thousands of YouTube views, endorsements on Twitter from Lance bass and John Barrowman, and the following Buzzfeed headline: “Meet the First Openly Gay Male Country Star.” Indeed, the 22-year-old musician from Lemont, IL had made an immediate impact: He was gay, he was pag-awit about having a crush on another guy, and his confident vulnerability was undeniably anthemic.

The video, about a gay man’s heartbreaking crush on a pal,...

TBL: Should listeners expect madami songs like “All-American Boy” in the future?

SG: I believe they want to see what’s in my puso because they’ve really responded to what’s in my heart, so that’s what I’m going to give it to them. So I don’t think you’ll expect a big tuktok 20 hit from me for awhile. There’s other music I want to make, and it’s not necessarily the most commercial. These people who’ve reached out to me are good, good people, and they deserve my best. I have to work for them. That’s my life now. I’m hesitant to put my song on iTunes — people keep asking...