Background
He was born in Washington, District of Columbia
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Craig Seymour
Edit ProfileEducation
He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park in College Park.
Career
He has written for The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Vibe, and Spin, among other publications, and has served as popular music critic for The Buffalo News and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Seymour was a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and is now Associate Professor of Journalism at Northern Illinois University. He lives in Chicago. He has interviewed and profiled some of the biggest names in music, including Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Luther Vandross, who granted him numerous interviews.
Seymour has also been a music analyst for Cable News Network"s Headline News.
He is a native of Washington, District of Columbia As a graduate student at the University of Maryland in the 1990s, Seymour started frequenting the strip clubs in Washington District of Columbia while writing his master"s thesis: "Desire and Dollar Bills: An Ethnography of a Gay Male Striptease Club." He used these experiences to write the book Seymour stated that stripping gave him the confidence he needed to interview big stars like Mariah Carey. In an interview with Dallas Voice, Seymour credited his stripping career with "the ease I had asking celebrities extremely personal questions, especially those having to do with sex and relationships.
After all, when someone is playing with your dick in public, it’s not only potentially awkward for you, the one being played with, it can also be weird for the person doing the playing, because he is exposing his desires so nakedly in front of other people." This book chronicles the life of singer and producer Luther Vandross, including his lifelong love of music and his infatuations with girl groups, particularly Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles and Dionne Warwick. Seymour includes mini-profiles of the many musicians who helped Vandross along his way.
When Seymour pressed Vandross in a 2001 interview to open up about his sexuality, including rumours that he was gay, Vandross told him "You"re trying to zero in on something that you are never ever gonna get.
Look at you, just circling the airport. You ain"t never gonna land.".
