Adam Lambert's Identity Crisis

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Adam Lambert on Big Show

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Adam Lambert at LAX




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Adam Lambert got peed on

Adam Lambert went to NYC nightspot Juliet last Sunday (Nov 22).

Tweets:
@patrickowens22 "oh man adam lambert (American Idol) is here with a bunch of people"
"holy shit i just peed on adam lambert"
"I have been inundated with @adamlambert fans. Guys, it was just some tranny pee. Calm down."

@ultragrrrl "I went to The Box... A tranny that was performing peed on the front row... Glambert was sitting in front row. He threw drink. Was hilarious."
"Omg! @adamlambert just got peed on at the Box. He threw a drink on the dude in return. It was performance art."
"Re the peeing... it was fucking hilarious. Everyone was laughing. @adamlambert included."

@adamlambert "Tranny pee: performer rigged device to make it seem like he was peeing on front row during show. It was a funny trick. We all freaked!"

@bradwalsh "i think a tranny just peed on everyone. i met adam's mom and then a tranny peed on everyone two seconds later. leaving the box."

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Interview with Fab Magazine

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3

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Adam Lambert on Sirius Radio

Ugly Duckling



AMA Performance



Soaked



Sexuality

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Adam Lambert talks about Suburban Decay & RedOne

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Adam Lambert on Letterman

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Interview with Michelle Collins

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Elvis Duran (radio)

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Adam Lambert on Elvis Duran (Video)

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Whataya Want From Me & Music Again on the Early Show

Whataya Want From Me



Music Again

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CBS Early Show Interviews

Interview 1



Interview 2

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For Your Entertainemnt Video Clip

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Adam Lambert on Alexa Chung

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Adam Lambert talks GMA and AMAs

Click here to hear Adam talk about the controversy of his performance at the AMAs and GMA canceling his appearance tomorrow morning.

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Adam Lambert outside The Late Show



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GMA cancels Adam Lambert's Performance


After more than 200 years of America being a democracy, one would expect that all people have freedom of expression. Apparently the 1500 people who complained against Adam's performance don't. Face it people, this is the XXI century and we must put our feet on the ground, discrimination is no longer acceptable in the modern world.

Good Morning America cancelled Adam Lambert's "For Your Entertainment" performance. Adam's performance at the AMAs Sunday night has become one of the most, if not THE most controversial event this year.

The performance has received thousands of mixed reviews. People have called it bold, disgusting, inappropriate, exciting, sexual, revolutionary, artistic, and a lot of other things.

Lambert says that the controversy that this has generated proves the chauvinist attitude of America when it comes to male sexual gay performances (not exactly in those words). Other shows involving lesbian acts have not been as polemic as this and have, most certainly, not received as many negative reviews as Lambert's (such as the Madonna kiss).

Fortunately Adam is scheduled to appear on the Early Show (CBS) tomorrow morning, as well as on the Late Show, and Ellen.

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For Your Entertainment at the AMAs


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Adam and Perez

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Adam Lambert at the AMAs red carpet

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American Music Awards

Remember to watch the American Music Awards today 8/7 c on ABC.
Get ready to watch Adam's performance of his album's first single, For Your Entertainment.
Click here to watch the event online

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Adam talks to Twitter

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Adam talks to ontheredcarpet.com

Click here to watch the interview

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Adam in Billboard Magazine


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Cover of Billboard Magazine

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Interview with ET

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Rehearsal for the AMA's

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Sneak Peek of FYE Video

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Adam at the Nokia Theater









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Rehearsing for the AMA's











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Interview with EW

Entertainment Weekly: Let’s talk about the OUT magazine kerfuffle.
Adam Lambert: Isn’t that fun? [laughs]

We now know the behind-the-scenes dialogue between the magazine and your management team. The thing I’m curious about is, from your perspective, how does it feel to have your image managed by someone other than you?
What people don’t realize is, I am managing my image, more than maybe the editor of OUT magazine likes to give anybody credit for. My team is a team. And I really feel fortunate that 19 Management and Simon Fuller said to me, from the get-go, “We want to do what you want to do. You need to tell us how you want to do things, what interests you have,” and they’ve been incredibly supportive of me. I really mean it. I’m not being puppeted around. I didn’t want to jump onto a gay magazine as my first thing, because I feel like that’s putting myself in a box and limiting myself. It was my desire to stay away from talking about certain political and civil rights issues because I’m not a politician. I’m an entertainer. That is not my area of expertise. I can talk about relationships and personal experiences because as an artist those things involve writing lyrics and that part of my process. But I didn’t feel comfortable talking about the March on Washington. I didn’t feel comfortable, so I asked my publicist to ask the interviewer to stay away from the political questions. I take full responsibility for that. I think that the editor has his agenda and has his opinions, which I respect, but they’re not necessarily my opinions. And I wish there was a little respect for that. Not every gay man is the same gay man.

They’re gonna take away your laminated membership card.
Apparently. It’s just sexuality. We’re all very very different, just like all straight people are different.

Who told you that?
You know? That’s the thing. But the funny thing is, in order for us to progress, we need to stop segregating ourselves. And a letter like that, that viewpoint — the letter that Aaron wrote is holding us back. Because it’s recognizing the big difference as opposed to letting us all ignore preference and just be people. So I think in attempt to champion a cause he’s actually taking a big step backwards.

With things like the phrase “gay-gay”?
That was taken out of context. It was all taken out of context. And also, the other thing that I feel about it? If there are things going on behind the scenes with my management, it has nothing to do with my interview with them. He really crossed a line.

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Interviews at the Us Event







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Adam & Kris at the Us Weekly Hot Hollywood Event













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A Minute with Adam Lambert

Q: How would you describe the music on the album?
A; "I think there are a lot of throwback elements to it. There is a lot of 70s and 80s influence. The first track has a little bit of kitschy-ness to it. But 'For Your Entertainment' has a very current pop/dance with a kind of T-Rex feel. I didn't want to turn my back on my love for classic rock and the audience won't appreciate that either because I got most of my cred on 'Idol' singing songs from that era. (But) I love commercial pop music and I wanted to make something commercial."

Q: Do you think there is a gap in the market right now for a glam rocker?
A; "Yes. There are females doing it, theatrical and a bit over the top. Lady Gaga, Pink, Christina Aguilera -- they all put on a show in the spirit of Madonna, dressing up and creating a theme. But there hasn't been a guy do it for a while. In the '70s and '80s there were a lot of artists that did it but for some reason it kind of fizzled out."

Q; You had already enjoyed professional success in musical theater, appearing in "Wicked" and "Hair", before you auditioned for "Idol". Why did you want more?
A: "I wanted to be more active in the creation of what I was performing. Theater is a great art form but I was not contributing much to what was going on in terms of dialogue, costumes, and staging. I just wanted to make my own thing."

Q: Despite coming out publicly as gay, I hear you had women throwing their panties at you on the "Idol" summer tour?
A: "Yes! What's that about? It's crazy! What am I, Tom Jones now?"

Q: What's the biggest way your life has changed this year?
A: "I am more financially secure. I'm renting a cute house rather than a studio apartment. I got a Ford Mustang convertible from Ford so that is pretty exciting. The lack of anonymity is interesting. But if I need to, I put on a baseball hat and some glasses and there is a way to blend in, there really is. That's the good thing about being in L.A. People are used to seeing members of the entertainment community. They don't geek out as much."

Q: You're looking pretty good today (eyeliner, four finger rings, blue plaid shirt, black nail polish, black calf length boots). How long does it take to get ready in the morning?
A: "Today I'm camera ready. It took under an hour. But when I'm just living my own day-to-day life, I roll out of bed and I'm a guy. But when it comes to this (promotional) stuff, I'm on girl time."

Q: The album cover has already got people talking. Why did you choose that picture?
A: "That image to me seemed really striking and kind of wild. I felt I looked almost inhuman. It was that whole David Bowie-Ziggy Stardust thing where you think he is an alien. It is a weird image and I liked that it was weird. I am weird."

Q: Are you really?
A: "I'm nice. But I'm weird. Maybe eccentric is a better word. I'll pick that label."

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Open Letter to Adam Lambert

Adam tweeted: "Hilarious", followed by a link to a website.


Dear Adam,

After reading Aaron Hickler's open letter, I felt compelled to summarize and add a few more of my own suggestions on how you might further prove your "gayness" to the "gay community" (the gay community, of course, being defined as a monolithic entity of one heart and one mind). It is my hope that said suggestions will allow you to eventually break the chains of a record company that has controlled so many of your decisions over the past several months.

I like you, Adam, I really do. That is why I freely offer these pearls of wisdom on how to celebrate, not dilute, the purity of your sexual identity.

1. As an openly gay man, you must be "unapologetically flamboyant" at all times. No going "hetero," or "stripped down," even if it's for a Motown song.

2. For the love of man, no photo shoots with naked women, especially smokin' hot "six-foot barbies"; not only does this compromise the box God put you in, it might cause or give the illusion of temporary bi-curiosity, thereby inflaming the fantasies of millions more "barbies."

3. Please refrain from saying women are "pretty" (or kittens). That's not gay at all. Well, maybe the latter, but definitely not the former.

4. In the future, please make an LGBT magazine your first choice of appearance. Scrap that. In the future, please make Out--the highest circulated gay magazine in the United States, available at stores everywhere--your first magazine of choice. We hear you sell a lot of magazines and we want in--for gay rights, of course!

5. Please re-consider your gay-hating handlers, particularly 19 Records. They clearly have too much control over your creative choices. Could that album cover have been any more straight and predictable?

6. Not to mention all those censored moments on American Idol. Did you really think we wouldn't notice who was pulling the strings on the vapid song choices and dull presentations of "Ring of Fire," "Black or White," "Mad World," and "Change is Gonna Come"

7. Which brings me to my next item: The gay community is troubled that while you have "come out" twice you keep going back "in." To resolve this dilemma, and make absolutely clear to fans that you are indeed a gay man, we propose an "I'm gay" disclaimer on all album covers of For Your Entertainment

8. In addition, while the glam vibe of your album might make your "gayness" implicit, we suggest a few adjustments to song titles that will make clearer whose side you're really on: "Strut (Like a Gay Man)", "(Gays are) Sure Fire Winners," and "Whataya Want From Me (Okay, I'll be the Gay Messiah)."

9. If you forget everything else, remember that as a gay man you must convey your gayness unequivocally, at all times, and on the "gay community's" terms. In the future, we will be watching to ensure your compliance (and maintain a blog for your discretions)

10. And finally, as a "gay pioneer," remember that we are "all counting on you not to mess this up." No pressure. Gay salvation depends on your career path. As the gay pop culture prophet Perez Hilton warns, you can either be a cog for the mainstream music machine or the gay community. There are no other options. You cannot be complex, you cannot be both masculine and feminine, you cannot resist labels or boxes, you cannot experiment, you cannot form your own identity, you cannot just be. You must always match stereotypes, meet expectations. Of course, if you do slip up and need to come out again as a gay man, Out Magazine would be happy to provide the platform.

Sincerely,

The Gay Thought, Fashion, and Culture Police

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Take One


Take One, the alum with the old Adam songs, came out today (17 November). Click here to buy it.

Track List:
1. First Light
2. Climb
3. December
4. Fields
5. Did you need it
6. More Than
7. Wonderful
8. Castleman
9. Hour Glass
10. Light Falls
11. Bonus Tracks-Remixes: Want, Spotlight, & On whith the Show

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ADAM'S ALBUM!!!!!!!

You can listen to all the songs of Adam's album (except bonus tracks) here


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Adam's Band

Adam tweeted a twitpic which shows Adam's band members. They are Lisa (keys), Monte (guitar) Tommy (bass), and Longineu (drums).


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Interview with Out Magazine (part 1)

Out: Let’s start off by talking about Lady Gaga.
Adam Lambert: I saw those pictures in Out, the Halloween pictures. They were incredible! I’m so refreshed by her. I think she’s finally taking risks. Like where are those people? You know what I mean? I’m inspired by it. I’m like, “Yeah, fuck yeah. Let’s take risks.”

We all wanted those rumors that you would take Kanye’s place on that tour to be true.
[Laughs.] Not true. It would be really fun.

Would it be the gayest tour ever?
It would probably be. The audience would be amazing, probably, at that tour. It’s really funny to me because a lot of my core fans -- people that went to the Idol concerts, and I glance at the messages boards once in a while -- there is a surprising amount of them that don’t like her.

Really?
And I’m like, but -- her way of approaching music is not that far off from what I’m trying to do. She’s doing what the club kids are doing and making it like, Top 40.

What has that inspired you to do?
Definitely just to take risks. Sonically, the actual style of her music is, like, club music. It’s not necessarily as avant garde as she’s presenting visually, but that’s what makes it so genius. It’s a song that everybody loves and she’s getting to play dress up and doing whatever the hell she wants. Which, I think, is what it should be. It’s how you interpret it.

Is what you learned on Idol applicable to the real world of the music industry?
I think so, yeah.

Do you feel like you’re having a different level of conversation with music execs?
When I stop and realize who it is that I’m talking to and what they’ve done, I’m like, holy shit. These people are powerful and they have a resume like…whew. I try to not to think about it. It’s the same way I dealt with the show. Just don’t think about the fact that there are 30 million people watching right now, just do your thing. Just stand on stage, sing for the people in the television audience, and don’t think about the cameras.

How did you manage that?
I think that what I did on Idol was me thinking to myself, OK, I want to stay on the show as long as possible, so what do I have to do to keep people interested? For me, that was kind of going into slightly chameleon-like situations where this week, I’m going to do more like this, and sound like this. I was always me, but now I’m going to go here, now I’m going to go there. Because we had different themes, and that’s what you kind of have to do. Trying to give it a through-line with me at the center of it, but playing different types of music. This week I’m not going to have any rocker style. I’m going to do Motown. I’m not going to wear any makeup, and I’m going to do my cleaned-up classic retro look. And people were like, “Wow!” And I’m like, “To me it’s not really that different. I’m just wearing a suit, I just brushed my hair.”

Watching your performance on Idol, it was almost like you were using an old-fashioned code to say, “We’re all in on this.” Tell me which parts of that were deliberate.
There was never any deliberate, like, “I’m going to hint now…” because I was never in the closet. The funny thing about dealing with all that was… [Long pause.] When those pictures came out online, I got freaked out. I was like, “Great, that’s gonna fuck things up.” ’Cause I just figured, you know, this is a national television program and people are conservative in our country, aside from L.A. and New York and a couple of other places.

I think for a lot of people, no matter how out you’ve been, you have these moments where you’re like, “How are people going to react?”
To be honest with you, it was a really weird moment, because I’ve been living in L.A. for eight years like, yeah, I’m gay. I go out to gay clubs and bars and I go out to straight clubs and bars too. I don’t think twice about it. And it was the first time since I’d come out of the closet at 18 that I had to think about it.

During the audition process, it didn’t come up? Like, “Okay, I’m going to maybe pull this back a little…”
I was just going to make it a non-issue, because to me, it really isn’t about that. It’s about the entertainment factor. And I don’t understand why it has to be about my sexuality. I’m just not going to talk about it one way or another. It doesn’t matter. And then when those pictures came out, I was like, you know what? I thought maybe I’ll just own it and say, “Yeah, I’m gay.” But I didn’t want to label myself. What I did was, I said, “I’m not ashamed of the pictures.” I didn’t do the thing that some people do and say, “I made mistakes in the past.” I didn’t want to acknowledge it as a mistake or something I was ashamed of, because I’m not.

It wasn’t like it was some hardcore sex tape that anyone, gay or straight, would’ve been kicked off of Idol for.
I was making out with my ex-boyfriend.

But that fear, that there’s a queer double standard -- it’s not always wrong.
It’s a hard thing that everybody’s gonna have their opinion about. You know? Some people in the gay community might look at it like, “You really should’ve owned that. You didn’t hide it, but you didn’t admit it and that’s weak.” My whole point is, I’m not trying to lead the fucking way for the civil rights movement that we’re in right now. I just happen to be a gay man -- and I’m not ashamed of that at all. Regardless of how I handled it, it became a huge issue. And I knew it would. So I figured, you know what, I’m just not going to label myself, I’m going to own the pictures, I’m going to get past it and just keep being myself on the show. And then I waited until after because I was finally given the opportunity. I mean, on the show, we’re not really [allowed to talk to press].

You’ve said it was your choice how to handle that. Even the most savvy gay people I know are dubious about you having that much control. How did it happen? Did you get called into a meeting?
Literally, the minute the pictures came out, the publicist for the show called me up and was like, “So? Did you hear about these pictures?” And I was like, “Yeah.” And she goes, “What do you want to do about it?” She was really cool.

This is the publicist from Fox?
The publicist from Fox, [Jill Hudson]. She was like, “You know, stuff like this has happened before, and this is usually what happens…” And I was like, “Jill, I don’t want to deny it, and I’m not ashamed of it. And I don’t want to seem like I’m ashamed of it. Because that’s not me. That’s just not how I am. But, at the same time I really want this opportunity and I want to stay on the show as long as possible. So, I kinda have to come up with a compromise.” And she was like, “Well, is it a big deal to you?” And I’m like, “No.” And she’s like, “Well, then let’s not make a big deal out of it.” And that’s what we did. She was like, “You know, own it. Tell them who you are, and just move forward.” And that’s what we did. And I’m glad that I handled it that way, because I think that had I immediately said the words and labeled myself -- you know, said “I am gay” -- I think that it would’ve been more about that, initially, than anything else. And the fact that we didn’t come out and make a big announcement or anything like that -- that doesn’t make any sense to me anyway. It’s not an announcement. It’s just, it’s part of who I am. But because our nation is the way it is, it’s an announcement. And also, there are very few gay celebrities. [Long pause.] It’s really cool, now, looking back, because I think that without saying it, and making that part of my identity, I think I allowed viewers to be more open to me. I think, had I put it out there that I was gay right off the bat, I think that people would’ve closed their minds right away.

But wouldn’t you say that it was a minority of people who were actually surprised that you were gay?
Yeah, I would hope. If somehow this can open people’s minds or whatever, then great. I’m not sitting here thinking about ways to open people’s minds. That’s the thing people have to understand.

Don’t you want to open people’s minds with your art? You’ve struck me as being an artist who has a point of view.
I do have a point of view. I may have something to say now and again. I just want people to enjoy the song and have a good time. That’s what music is about for me. It’s not so political for me. I may be the subject of something that’s so political, being that we’re in a weird time right now. And if I can indirectly open people’s minds up and get them to kind of change their views a little bit, then I’m really thrilled with that. But that’s not my mission. That’s not why I’m doing this.

You’ve talked about Idol as less of a competition and more of a platform.
I’ve always seen Idol as a machine, like a political machine that can make or break --
It is!

Watching you was exciting because it felt like you were beating them at their own game.
We were all on the same page. I could feel early on that they were all on my side. They weren’t against me. They never said, “Tone it down.” They knew it was good for ratings, they knew people were into it. They encouraged it. I was like, “This is great! This could not have gone better.” They were totally supportive of what I wanted to do. They didn’t ask questions. They were like, “What are you singing? Is it well known? Are people gonna like it? Well, cool! Then go for it, man! You’re wearing what? All right!” They didn’t care.

It’s about money at the end of the day, right?
It’s about making a good TV show.

Could expectations for your album be any bigger?
I know. It’s a lot of pressure right now, and it’s gotten to me a couple times. But, I think that what you were saying -- about the show being a platform and being a machine and all that -- I think what happens is, I’m one of the lucky people that have been in the industry a little bit. I haven’t necessarily been in the recording industry. Over the past couple of years I started working on some demos and things like that and wanting to get into it. But I’ve been in the theater industry for a long time. And I’ve lived in L.A. for eight years. And when you’re in the city of entertainment, and you open your eyes and you meet people and you hear stories and you have friends that have been through this and that, going onto a show like Idol, you get it, going into it. I think what happens is that a lot of people that they get are from a small town in the Midwest, or they were a student and now they just kind of sing on the side. The whole amateur aspect of the show is really interesting, because it creates accessible personalities for the audience to attach themselves to. That’s why it looks like a machine. Because the machine has to lead them around, these amateurs that don’t know what else to do. And I think that there are some people that come onto the show that are savvy, and they get how to play the show. And I guess that was me.

Have you gotten any really good pieces of savvy business advice?
Well, I’ve been told by a handful of the producers to just be true to yourself. Just make sure that you feel like you’re at the center of this, artistically. That’s what I’m trying to do. And it’s being facilitated really elegantly. It’s a weird misconception with the show, that it’s a machine and they puppet people around. I think some people kind of end up getting puppeted because they don’t really know how to drive.

I meant more like, they get to test you and see if you can rise to the occasion. As opposed to how you came in and were like, “This is what we’re going to do. Work around me.”
Yeah, they love that, though. It’s less work for them. I think they get excited when they see someone with drive and ideas and confidence. They love that. That’s the thing about the show that people don’t get. They’re not threatened by that. That’s what they would love. They would love to get as many people like that on the show as possible. It would make for a good show.

It’ll be interesting to see this year’s show.
I hope they take some more risks. They really should.

So how are you doing with the expectation factor?
I’m just trying not to think about it. It’s like, “Just make your album, just make your music.”

When’s the last time you had a full day off?
Yesterday. Hung out with my boyfriend. Went to the beach. Just relaxed.

Let’s talk about boys.
OK.

Tell me more about your boyfriend.
You know, I try not to talk about him too much to the press because it’s like, trying to keep something kind of private. It’s surprisingly -- well, I guess its not that surprising, but it’s very difficult to maintain a relationship amidst all this.

And it’s all relatively new.
It’s a lot to ask of someone, to be able to be OK [with it].

Has he been OK?
Yeah.

Were there guys hitting on you on tour?
No. The majority of fans that I came into contact with were women. A lot of women.

But you have plenty of gay fans.
I’ve met like, three. That’s the thing that’s so funny to me -- I don’t have a good idea of who’s into me, because the only people I’ve seen are like, women.

Maybe the gay men would never have gone to an Idol concert.
That’s true, it may be the Idol thing. I didn’t think about that. You’re probably right about that.

I was surprised how affirming it felt to see you perform in a big arena, with 20,000 people screaming for you.
That’s the thing too, is that in an indirect way, acceptance is being promoted right now. That’s really, really powerful, and that’s a hard thing to have happen. Especially for a male in the music industry, quite frankly. It’s tough.

There’s a way in which both you and Neil Patrick Harris are being talked about as exceptions to the rule, to the idea that there could never be an out, gay leading man or male musical star. You both seem very confident and comfortable with who you are. But that’s not always true of your handlers. We’ve gotten plenty of push back from your management -- and many other people’s -- who say, “Well, let’s not be too gay…”
Well, you know, I think that there’s something to that, though. I think the whole magic of this moment is that I’m not alienating anybody. I’m not trying to anyway. I want as many people to feel like they can like the music. I don’t want to edit myself to the point where I feel like I don’t have integrity. But at the same time, I feel like I don’t want to alienate people, so it’s really hard. It’s almost like being a political figure. It’s like a balancing act. I feel really good about how open I’ve been, ’cause I really don’t feel like I’ve hidden anything. It’s like the picking and choosing. When is it appropriate and when is it not? One of the things that I don’t like about the gay community is that people define themselves by their sexuality -- and that’s bullshit. It shouldn’t be about that. It should be that it just so happens that you’re this or that, and that’s your sexuality. It doesn’t mean that that should dictate what your social group is or where you go out or who you talk to or what your interests are. That’s bullshit. That’s outdated.

It’s very narrow.
The segregation [from straight people] that exists in the gay community is outdated. At a time, it was necessary because we weren’t accepted. And now that acceptance is moving way forward, over the past 10 years. I think that we need to move forward too, and I think we need to kind of like, stop being so segregated and just be.

How do you describe your sexuality?
I think one of the things about the gay community that’s really interesting is that while people own their homosexuality, there is a strange aversion to letting the masculine and the feminine exist within you in a balanced way. And for me, personally, I feel I have a very strong masculine side, and I also have a very strong feminine side. And a lot of people are scared to live in that gray area. There’s boys out in Boystown that are either really fem or really butch. It’s at the extremes. I love when I meet people that are just kind of comfortable being both. And they don’t have to identify being really butch or really fem. Why? Why would you have to?

And also, if you’re one of these, then you must be attracted to the other. Are you attracted to guys like you?
I don’t even know anymore. I think when I was younger, I could box in what my sexuality was about, what’s my type and all that. But as I’ve gotten older, and just learned more about myself and the world, it’s not really about type anymore. I mean, if someone’s hot, they’re hot. If someone’s interesting, they’re interesting. If you have an energy and a chemistry with someone, then you have chemistry. Done. You can’t really define that or explain it. It just is. You just meet people and you click, or you don’t. You know? [Pauses.] Although -- I like pretty boys.

[Laughs.] What kind of pretty?
Pretty. Pretty is pretty. And I’m generally drawn to [guys who are] younger than me. Generally…but there are exceptions.

You told Rolling Stone that you had a crush on Kris Allen, and everyone went crazy about it.
Believe me, right after I said it, I was like… It turned into this thing, and I was like, "Oh God, I shouldn’t said that and now it’s blown way out of proportion."

Are you usually attracted to straight boys?
No, actually.

Kris seems like a real straight guy.
He is a real straight guy. He’s very straight. He’s just…cute.

He’s pretty.
He’s pretty. He’s a pretty boy. You know? And he’s nice. He’s a really nice guy. One of the things that I think is so refreshing and cool about him is that he’s from Arkansas -- and this is me being small-minded -- I just kinda figured that the acceptance of people like me in Arkansas is probably a lot lower than here. And he’s very open-minded to people’s lifestyles and he doesn’t judge. He’s a good guy.

To have someone who is very religious and who feels like that --
That’s the funny thing, is that he’s not very religious, I don’t know where he got that label. Danny [Gokey] is very religious.

Did they put all the boys on the same bus?
Uh-huh. Eleven of us.

Let’s talk about Michael Sarver, who seemed at first to be a religious guy who wasn’t very comfortable with you being gay. But when the tour encountered “God Hates Fags” protesters, he was all over Twitter condemning them and defending you.
He’s got a really good heart, that guy. He does. And I think that he represents a large portion of our country, good people who are just scared of what they don’t know. We didn’t even have that many conversations about it directly, but it’s just another example of acceptance. We just got along with each other. He just wants everybody to like him, and he wants to like everybody. It’s very simple, what his needs are. And I have very similar needs. We cut up all the time, backstage and on the bus. We get along great. I think what he realized was that it doesn’t fucking matter. And he got past that.

Was Danny very religious in a way that made you uncomfortable?
No, never uncomfortable. Danny’s a little bit more fundamental in his views than I think Michael is. And I don’t think his views are going to change. But it didn’t get in the way. We had a number of conversations on religion and morality. And it wasn’t for either one of us to try to convince the other, it was just to kind of learn. He was very cool with that, just having a conversation. We had some really deep conversations about God.

What did you learn?
I just got a better sense of what a very strong, traditional Christian outlook is. I don’t really have a lot of friends that are that way, so it was educational for me to learn about what that is and what the beliefs are behind it. I was raised Jewish, first of all, and I’m not even that religious. I would consider myself spiritual, kind of leaning towards more New Age ideas. I’m not like, fully hippie -- but those kind of belief systems make the most sense to me.

Have you already gotten your scandalous past out of the way?
I do feel like a lot of its behind me, and that feels good.

So you’re not waiting for another shoe to drop…
What’s funny is that in the ’70s a lot of the glam artists -- like Bowie, T. Rex, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, KISS -- they were gender bending with their image, but most of them were pretty hetero. Even though they looked really flamboyant. Bowie was the one guy that kind of made you wonder. But he was straight, right?

Yeah, I guess.
Yeah, I know, I didn’t like that either. But that’s the ’80s for you. At the heart of it, the question was, “Are they gay?” And I think it would be kind of fun to toy with the imagery of, “Is he gay?” but the other way around.

Are you toying with perception when you talk about how you could be bi-curious? Or are you generally attracted to women?
I will make out with a girl at a bar. I mean, after a couple of drinks.

[Laughing] That doesn’t make you any less gay. Get three mai tais in a gay boy and he’ll make out with a girl. Sex is something different.
That’s why I say I’m curious. There are gay guys that gag and go “eww” at the thought of having sex with a girl. I’m curious about it, because I’ve never done it.

Have you ever had any sex with a girl?
Oral.

You went down on her?
Uh-huh.

Was it gross, or it was just not what you wanted?
It was a little gross because I don’t think she was as clean as she could’ve been. It wasn’t the act of it that really turned me off. I don’t really remember. I was 18 and I was drunk. Or maybe I was 17... The point of the matter is that I would not rule it out. The idea is intriguing.

And it’s threatening.
Well, it’s threatening personally because you start identifying as a certain thing for so long, the idea of kind of going outside of that is scary because you’re like, “But that’s who I am!” Being curious and embracing that curiosity is all a part of what I’m about. You don’t have to be any one thing. You can kinda just be. Just live your life -- and play.

If you were going to pick one thing to be remembered for, so far, what would it be?
That I can sing my face off. I mean, that’s what I do. All this other stuff is part of a personality, persona thing surrounding that. I hope that people are like, “Oh, I like his voice. I like his music.”

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"For Your Entertainment"













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