Adam Lambert opens up to Rolling Stone about being gay.
Adam Lambert is gay.
The American Idol Season 8 runner-up ends any speculation in the next issue of Rolling Stone, out Friday. “I don’t think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear I’m gay.” He explains: “I’ve been living in Los Angeles for eight years as a gay man. I’ve been at clubs drunk making out with somebody in the corner.”
The Idol favorite, who finished in second place after Kris Allen, says, “Right after the finale, I almost started talking about it to the reporters, but I thought, ‘I’m going to wait for Rolling Stone, that will be cooler.’ ” He adds, ” I’m proud of my sexuality.”
Still, Lambert, 27, says he doesn’t mind attention from the opposite sex. “I loved it this season when the girls went crazy for me,” he says. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s all hot.”
But exactly what is his type? When Idol producers put him in a room to share with Allen, Lambert says his first thought was, “They put me with the cute guy. Distracting! He’s the one guy I found attractive in the whole group on the show: nice, nonchalant, pretty and totally my type — except that he has a wife. I mean he’s open-minded and liberal, but he’s definitely 100% straight.”
As for the scandal over photos of Lambert in drag that surfaced on the Internet in March, he says, he forgot to remove photos from his profile on a social network for the Burning Man festival in Nevada. “Wasn’t ready for that,” he tells RS of the photos of him in costume making out with his ex. He was worried that people would think the drag ensemble was typical of him. “I’ve only dressed in drag three or four times. … I don’t tuck and wear breasts, that’s not me.”
Though Lambert supports the gay-rights movement, he doesn’t want to be its poster boy. “I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader.”
Stereotypes about gays do annoy Lambert. “Clay Aiken’s gay, and I’m gay, and we couldn’t be more different. The only thing that is the same about everyone in the gay community is that we’re gay. … Why can’t we talk about a human community?”
In addition to his homosexuality, Lambert shares other personal details with RS.
At 21, he was in a European tour of Hair for six months. That was when he dyed his hair black. In Germany, he started smoking pot and tried Ecstasy. But he does have limits. Among his dislikes: cocaine.
“That drug is such a reflection of the lack of self-esteem and control people have over themselves and their lives,” he says.
