Beartooth frontman Caleb Shomo has spoken out for the first time since publicly coming out as a gay man. He addressed the unexpected scale of the reaction in a new interview with Kerrang!.
Shomo reflected on how what he intended as a personal moment within his own community quickly spiraled into a much larger media story. He also shared where his head is at now.
“Today I feel really good. We’re a mid-sized metal band and when I said what I said I really thought it would just be in our world,” he said. “It just blew up into this whole thing, with the mainstream press getting a hold of it, creating a narrative that created all these issues. That’s not what this is about – this is about me being able to freely express myself in my life, my art, and in my music.”
Beyond the public reaction, Shomo also opened up about how he has been channeling his energy ahead of an upcoming tour.
“I’ve been sinking my teeth into preparations for our tour in September. I’ve tried to give myself three months of really hard prep. I’ve been doing two-hour, 30-song practices. My voice feels great, my body feels great, and my mind is feeling pretty good at the moment, which I’ll take,” he continued.
Shomo also acknowledged the emotional weight of the past several months, describing a period of significant personal change.
“It feels somewhat complicated at times. There have just been so many seismic life changes in the last nine months. So, right now, my focus on life is just enjoying my 24 hours and trying to remember that, for me, that requires a lot, regardless of where I am in my life,” he said.
Beartooth’s tour is set to kick off in September. Shomo appears to be in a focused and determined headspace as he prepares for the road ahead.
The interview arrives weeks after Shomo’s original announcement sent shockwaves well beyond the metal world. It touched on deeply personal struggles that had long remained hidden from public view.
Shomo made the revelation in an emotional Instagram post in which he declared himself a “proudly gay man.” He added that he had spent a decade burying his feelings with alcohol. The admission was not only a statement about his sexuality but also a candid reckoning with years of depression and internal conflict that had quietly shaped both his life and his music.
The announcement carried additional weight given that Shomo had been married throughout the period he described as one of suppression. His wife subsequently posted her own public statement addressing his coming out. This underscored the deeply personal and complex nature of the situation for everyone involved.
The story quickly moved beyond the rock and metal press, drawing widespread mainstream coverage. Shomo himself acknowledged this was not what he had anticipated or intended. For a frontman who built his band’s identity around raw emotional honesty, having that honesty reframed and amplified by outlets outside his world proved to be its own kind of challenge.
Within the metal community, the response was largely one of support. The genre, often stereotyped as unwelcoming to LGBTQ+ artists, demonstrated a notable degree of solidarity. Fans and fellow musicians rallied around Shomo in the days following his announcement. For many, his openness represented a meaningful moment for visibility and inclusion in a space where such conversations have historically been rare.
Shomo founded Beartooth in Columbus, Ohio, and has long served as the band’s sole creative engine. He writes and produces all of their material. That level of personal investment in the music makes his coming out all the more significant. The themes of struggle, identity, and resilience that have defined Beartooth’s catalog now carry an entirely new layer of meaning.
