If you need Barry Manilow to be straight in order to enjoy his soft-rock smash hits, then you really need to get your priorities together, buddy. In a new People profile, the 73-year-old “Mandy†singer discusses why he felt he had to stay closeted for decades, despite his 39-year-long relationship with partner Garry Kief. At the time, Manilow says he did it for the fans. “I thought I would be disappointing them if they knew I was gay,†the singer admits. “So I never did anything.†Instead, the multiplatinum king of easy listening attended events with longtime friend and rumored romantic partner Linda Allen. (Manilow was also briefly married to wife Susan Deixler for a year after graduating high school in 1961.) Only after he married Kief in a private ceremony in April 2014 did Manilow publicly acknowledge his sexuality, and their almost 40-year romance. Turns out, most Barry Manilow fans are pretty mellow. “When they found out that Garry and I were together, they were so happy,†Manilow says. “The reaction was so beautiful — strangers commenting, ‘Great for you!’ I’m just so grateful for it.†Four decades later, Manilow fondly recalls meeting Kief, a TV executive who eventually became the singer’s manager and president of Barry Manilow Productions, in 1978. “I knew that this was it,†Manilow remembers. “I was one of the lucky ones. I was pretty lonely before that.â€