Joe Gauthreaux : Official Podcast

On a late Summer day in 1996, a very young and determined 20 year old boy walked into a gay nightclub in New Orleans called Oz. It was named after the movie, in case you’re wondering. I had a box full of cds that I bought from online shops after scouring the playlists of Susan Morabito and other Fire Island DJs I looked up to at that time. I had no clue what Susan looked liked, or where David Morales lived, or how Michael Fierman styled his hair. Nor did I care. It was a time of pre social media when you fell in love with a DJ with your ears, not your eyes. I had few records too, though I had no clue how a turntable worked at that point. But somehow I convinced the owners of the club I could DJ, and had the music people weren’t hearing in New Orleans at the moment because none of their local DJs were as obsessed with New York and Fire Island as I was. In 1996, Fire Island was the gay circuit. It was the Holy Grail of gay nightlife, in my opinion at least. It taught me what gay men wanted to dance to. Even tho