1. His music is varied enough in its influences of rock, folk, blues, gospel, soul, r&b, etc. that everyone can find something in the discography that they like, so people appreciate that it’s different from the norm but still accessible. He also tends to favor elaborate metaphors about love and storytelling over straightforward “ooh girl I love your body” types of songs.
2. He is a very outspoken social activist who integrates lessons about prejudice, domestic violence, and political change into his music and is often on the frontlines at fundraisers and rallies. This includes speaking out publicly about homophobia, racism, and sexism despite ostensibly being a straight white dude. As mentioned above, his female fans appreciate a general lack of objectification in his music, and he is also known for acknowledging that his success is due to the influence of women of color.
3. As much as one can say this of a celebrity that one does not know, he comes across as kind and conscientious person. Part of the LGBTQ+ following comes from a recognition of their appreciation (people throw various pride flags at him to hold up during concerts as a kind of tradition at this point) and subsequent removal of pronouns from much of his music over the years (whether this was purposeful or not is unclear but still often noted). He has also consistently eschewed expensive VIP packages in favor of free meet-and-greets after shows.
4. His debut album was heavy on the morbidity and influenced by his obsession with Seamus Heaney poetry about bog bodies, so a sort of internet cult of personality sprang up referring to him as the “Bog Man” who may actually be several thousand years old. This is contrasted with his actual personality as a Certified Millennial who used a flip phone until a couple of years ago and makes frequent quality shitposts on Twitter. The juxtaposition of this makes the Interwebz go bananas.
5. His hair is long and fluffy and more or less has its own fandom at this point.
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