When indie-rock band the Drums, led by openly gay singer-songwriter Jonny Pierce, performed this month at the Los Angeles Pride Festival, it marked another major personal and professional milestone for Pierce, who raised in a small town by strict, unsupportive, Pentecostal preacher parents. The day before the Drums took L. I spent some years rejecting it, some years hiding it, some years admitting it to myself — but not owning it. I was living in fear. After his Pride performance, Yahoo Entertainment sat down with Pierce, age 37, to discuss his long and sometimes painful journey from being a closeted kid to out-and-proud queer icon, and why he now believes that being gay ultimately saved his life.