Aaron Coady, better known by his stage name Sharon Needles, is an American drag performer and music artist. He was born on November 28, 1981.
Needles, who calls herself a “stupid genius, reviled sweetheart, and PBR princess,” gained fame around the world after appearing on the fourth season of the Logo reality competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race, where she quickly became a fan favourite and was ultimately crowned “America’s Next Drag Superstar” in April 2012.
Needles’s debut album, PG-13, was released in January 2013 after she won Drag Race. The album charted at #9 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart and #186 on the Billboard 200.
Needles followed it up with four more albums that debuted in the top ten on the US Dance/Electronic album chart: Taxidermy (2015), Battle Axe (2017), Spoopy (2019), and Absolute Zero (2020). (2022).
Needles received a lot of backlash in the late 2010s and early 2020s because of claims of sexual misconduct and racial insensitivity. Nonetheless, she is still very much active, and as of June 2022, her official YouTube channel had over 11 million views, with four of her videos having over a million views and another having over two million.
Controversy
Sharon Needles, who won season four of RuPaul’s Drag Race, allegedly tortured a young fan for years, as reported by The Daily Beast. Annecy, a fan of Aaron Coady (stage name Needles), told the site that Coady had mistreated them physically and sexually and inspired them to self-harm. Annecy said that they first started performing these stunts in 2013 after they earned a spot on a Drag Race cruise when they were 15 years old.
They claimed to have spent a lot of time with Needles, then 31, and his partner, Alaska Thunderfuck (later a winner of Drag Race All Stars), whom Annecy claimed had exposed himself to them.
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According to The Daily Beast
Annecy has been complaining about Needles since at least 2013, and in a now-deleted post, they laid out numerous complaints against the company. Needles has strongly disputed the charges made against her, and her attorney told The Daily Beast, “Sharon is prepared to defend herself against this individual to the best extent possible.”
Annecy said that they first communicated with Needles via Vine in 2013 and that their friendship grew through the use of FaceTime and other social media platforms until April 2015, during which time Annecy disclosed their history of self-harm and suicidal ideation. The Daily Beast published a purportedly sent-to-Annecy video which appears to back up the claims that Needles advocated for self-harm.
Needles’ behaviour during the meet and greets has been reported by multiple other fans to The Daily Beast, including groping allegations from one and jokes about eating issues from another. Another one of Needles’ ex-fans said the drag queen had touched her. Needles has a long history of racism and the use of racial insults, which has been documented, including by other Drag Race queens, and was brought up by several of the fans questioned.
Needles Did Not Receive Any Comments from Former Drag Race Queens from The Daily Beast
Joslyn Fox, a character from Season 6, has previously criticised Annecy’s social media claims for 2020, calling them “heartbreaking” and “much harder to read when you know it’s true” on Twitter.
Winner of season ten and Needles’ former drag daughter, Aquaria, has distanced herself from him after Annecy’s allegations of inappropriate social media behaviour.
Aquaria expressed remorse for “everyone he has wounded” in a tweet. I have also expressed this many times: “I do not endorse that man, and I SERIOUSLY do not wish to continue speaking on my experiences beyond being supportive of the victim.”
I just want to see some form of accountability, but at this point, I don’t think that’s something I’m going to receive from him, so it’s up to the people around him to hold him accountable — and I don’t feel like that’s happened,” Annecy said in an interview with The Daily Beast.
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Career
The song “Hollywoodn’t” was released as the album’s second single on August 5, 2016. The song video, produced by Santiago Felipe again, looked at the seedier side of the Hollywood film industry.
Needles represented Elizabeth Short (aka the Black Dahlia), Sharon Tate (as The Bride of Frankenstein), and Jayne Mansfield in the video. On October 6, 2017, she released Battle Axe, her third studio album, along with the music video for the album’s lead hit.
The album’s second single, “Andy Warhol Is Dead,” was released on November 5, 2017. For the album Christmas Queens 3, she was a contributor (2017). Additionally, the Pittsburgh City Paper team voted Sharon Needles 2015’s “Best Drag Performer.”