antiMUSIC is pleased to welcome aboard with Chuck DiMaria, who will be giving us his 2 cents every week on a variety of music topics.

As always the views expressed by the writer do not neccessarily reflect the views of antiMUSIC or the iconoclast entertainment group

I had no idea Peter Allen was gay. I am not kidding, I swear to God I didn't know the guy was gay.

Now, I know what you're thinking � What the hell does some dead, Hawaiian shirt wearing, lounge act singer staple and gay Broadway star have to do with this site?

Trust me when I tell you a lot.

Follow me, kids, cause I'm going someplace�

This site is about music and the people who play it, live it and love it. Peter Allen, bless his gay little heart, falls directly into that category.

On June 6th, the nation will tune into the Tony Awards, the big night out for Broadway. Up for a few awards is a show called The Boy From Oz starring Hugh Jackman. And it's about (you guessed it) Peter Allen.

(It cracks me up that the guy who played both Wolverine and Van Helsing is playing Peter Allen, but I digress�)

A little background: Peter Allen was a singer/songwriter who either wrote or co-wrote (among others) I Honestly Love You, Don't Cry Out Loud and the theme from the movie Arthur. He got an Academy Award for that last one.

Again, you gotta be asking, So freakin' what?

Here's what � Believe it or not, the guy was a rock star.

Allow me to prove my case:

You want to know why I like to make fun of people like Fred Durst or Kid Rock? (I mean, aside from the fact that it's fun.) Because it's easy. They're poseurs, kids, plan and simple. All they're trying to do up on stage is nothing more than a feeble attempt at a fashion statement.

Newsflash, kids: Rock �n Roll (and you can call it whatever the hell you want, it's all still Rock �n Roll to me) is not a fashion statement, it's a passion statement. It's about your passion; all your love, all your hate and everything in between.

What it is not about is pseudo tough guy, baseball cap on backwards, I grew up a rich suburban white kid and now I'm a poor urban black kid, maybe if I get one more tattoo Britney will finally notice me BS posturing.

No passion, kids. A lot of fashion, but no freakin' passion.

I remember seeing Peter Allen on television years ago. If memory serves, it was Radio City Music Hall, The Rockettes and Peter Allen. And that guy tore that audience apart. I'm telling you, more power, more passion and more charisma on stage than Bono, Michael Hutchence (rest in peace) and Freddie Mercury (double rest in peace) combined. I'm watching this guy � he's wearing a Hawaiian shirt and singing "I Go To Rio" while dancing on top of his piano as the Rockettes are high-stepping all around him and all I could think was, Damn, this guy can sell a song.

That and, Damn, I love the Rockettes! (Once again, I digress�)

It was a stellar performance. And do you know why? Because you believed every word he sang and every move he made.

And that is what made the guy a rock star. People laugh when I tell them I never knew Peter Allen was gay. They say, how could you not know? Just look at him! I tell them, Hey, the dude could sell a song on stage. That's all I was looking at and all I cared about.

Now, you're probably thinking that there's a lot of artists with passion in the music world today. Damn right there is. (And thank the Good Lord for it.) There isn't enough bandwidth on this site to list them all. I didn't say it all sucked; I'm just pointing out why some of it does. (I do satirical commentary, remember?)

I never thought I'd learn anything from watching a Peter Allen performance. But with all the current crop of stars claiming to be "keepin' it real", it seems to me that no one's doing that at all.

Bottom line is that I'd rather watch the gay Broadway Hawaiian shirt guy go up on stage and be real than watch the wannabe poseur is my crooked baseball cap on straight no talent hack go onstage and be fake.

That's my two cents, now gimme my change.

Chuck DiMaria is Los Angeles based musician and antiMUSIC columnist. Check out his website ChuckDiMaria.com for more of his writings, MP3s and more (be sure to read about his adventures in online dating!!)