NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Country music outlaw Willie Nelson sang “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” and “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” more than 25 years ago. He released a very different sort of cowboy anthem this Valentine’s Day.

“Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)” may be the first gay cowboy song by a major recording artist. But it was written long before this year’s Oscar-nominated “Brokeback Mountain” made gay cowboys a hot topic.

Willie Nelson performs during a show in Nashville, Tenn., in this June 28, 2005 file photo. Nelson released an homage to gay cowboys called ‘Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)’ which debuted Tuesday Feb. 14, 2006 on Howard Stern’s satellite radio show.

The song, which debuted Tuesday on Howard Stern’s satellite radio show, was written by Texas-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette in 1981. Sublette said he wrote it during the “Urban Cowboy” craze and always imagined Nelson singing it.

Someone passed a copy of the song to Nelson back in the late 1980s and, according to Nelson’s record label, Lost Highway, he recorded it last year at his Pedernales studio in Texas.

Nelson has appeared in several Western movies and sings “He Was a Friend of Mine” on the “Brokeback Mountain” soundtrack.