Beartooth frontman Caleb Shomo has opened up about his decision to come out as a gay man, the end of his marriage, and his complicated relationship with religion. All of this is reflected on the band’s new album “Pure Ecstasy,” which he discussed in a new interview with NME.
Shomo discussed what led him to step back into the public eye and share the news publicly. When asked, “Hi Caleb. What was it that prompted you to come back online and then publicly share that statement about your sexuality?”, he explained his reasoning for coming forward on his own terms.
“I hit this point in my life where I realised, ‘This is probably going to get out into the world, one way or another,’ and I wanted to get ahead of it and say it on my own terms,” Shomo said. “There’s a lot of other reasons, but really, at the end of the day, it was something I needed to do for myself. I want to be who I am and not have to worry about it, and I felt it was probably gonna give me a little bit of peace of mind to rip off that band-aid.”
He went on to reflect on how his upbringing shaped the experience of coming out and the timing of his decision.
“I understand it was not a very unusual situation of a coming out, but [it was], somewhat, in my life; the religious thing [Shomo was raised as a Christian], I’ve been married for a long time,” he continued. “In short, it was just time. I had been open with a lot of people close to me for a long time. I wanted to get it off my chest. And it felt great.”
The conversation then turned to the lyrical content of “Pure Ecstasy,” specifically the lines “I just can’t buy this shit you’re selling” and references to God on the track “Sorry.” Shomo was asked, “You sing ‘I just can’t buy this shit you’re selling’ and reference God on ‘Sorry.’ Is the message of not apologising for who you are directed at your Christian upbringing?”
“As much as [religion] hasn’t necessarily been a part of my life in practice for quite some time, that song is about me realising the hold it subconsciously had on me for so long,” Shomo said. “Not just religion – there are a lot of other ‘Fuck you’s’ in there too! But it was a statement to let that stuff go and really accept who I am. As much as I’ve tried being self-deprecating, ignoring all of these different things, sometimes you’ve got to say ‘fuck you’ and move on.”
This candid conversation follows a series of major personal milestones for Shomo over the past several months. Each of these milestones adds crucial context to the emotional weight behind “Pure Ecstasy.”
Shomo first came out publicly in a heartfelt Instagram post on May 23, declaring himself a “proudly gay man” after years of grappling privately with his identity. The announcement came after months of speculation surrounding his personal life, much of it stemming from backlash over Beartooth’s single “Free.”
That revelation set in motion a chain of events that reshaped Shomo’s personal life. Just two months later, in mid-July, Shomo and his wife of nearly 14 years, Fleur Shomo, mutually filed for divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court. The couple married in April 2012 and have no children. They ended their marriage amicably as Shomo continued to process his identity in the public eye.
In the weeks following his coming-out announcement, Shomo took to a podcast to unpack the religious upbringing that had long complicated his relationship with his sexuality. He detailed how his Christian background instilled certain perceptions about being gay. Those perceptions created significant barriers on his path to eventually accepting and announcing who he truly is.
Taken together, these developments paint a fuller picture of the journey that led to “Pure Ecstasy.” The album, along with Shomo’s recent openness about his life, reflects a broader reckoning with identity, faith, and self-acceptance. This reckoning has clearly shaped both his personal outlook and his songwriting on the record.
