Rocker opens up about facing homophobia after coming out

Beartooth frontman Caleb Shomo has opened up about the homophobia he’s faced since coming out as gay and divorcing his wife of 14 years, Fleur Shomo.

The singer, 33, publicly came out as gay in May 2026, eight months after he came out to his family and friends.

In a candid interview on heavy metal podcast The Break Down with Nath & Johnny, released on Friday, Shomo revealed the motivation behind his drastic change in appearance following his split.

“I had already decided, like, I’m not gonna water myself down at all,” he told hosts Nathan McCallum and Johnny Needham.

“I’m going to just do what I want to do. I’m going to wear what I want to wear. I’m going to sing how I want to sing, I’m gonna look how I wanna look and just enjoy being an artist that’s allowed to do that, and has the freedom to do that.”

“And that was met with a lot of opposition and a lot of … I mean, really, just a lot of homophobia, and a lot of people who really were not okay with me presenting that way at all, with what I was doing, any of it.”

He admitted the outside noise impacted him as he was trying to get on stage and perform, so he decided to shut out the outside noise by getting offline “for a while.”

“I mean, a lot of the day I’d be spent in a really, really bad place and just trying to find enough energy and enough will to get myself warmed up and get on that stage and do my f–king job,” he said.

“And it didn’t really change as we kept releasing more songs, and the very vocal opposition continued and still continues to.”

“And, yeah, me coming out didn’t help that. And just being honest with people about who I am and what’s been going on.”

Shomo first opened up about his sexuality in an Instagram post in May this year, writing to his 217,000 followers: “There’s been a lot of speculation surrounding my personal life as of late.”

“I am a proudly gay man.”

Shomo revealed it’s something he’s been “unpacking and reckoning with” in his life for quite some time now.

In the statement, he admitted: “I spent a decade burying feelings with alcohol”.