Report: Lambert talks about sex, drugs, Idol
6/9/2009NEW YORK American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert has landed the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, where he talks about sex, drugs and his Idol experiences.
The 27-year-old singer from San Diego acknowledges in an interview that he s gay, and says it shouldn t come as a surprise to anyone.
I m proud of my sexuality, he says. I embrace it. It s just another part of me.
Lambert says he was inspired to audition for the Fox network singing competition after having a psychedelic experience at the Burning Man festival in Nevada. There, he says, he experimented with certain funguses.
I knew that it was my only shot to be taken seriously in the recording industry, because it s fast and broad, he says of Idol.
Lambert emerged as an early front-runner and judge favorite, thanks in part to his soaring vocal range.
When he moved into the show s Bel-Air mansion with the other finalists, he roomed with Kris Allen, who won the Idol title over Lambert last month.
I was like, Oh ... they put me with the cute guy, Lambert says. Distracting! He s the one guy that 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 percent straight.
According to Rolling Stone, Lambert was open about his sexuality backstage at Idol. In March, photos surfaced online of Lambert kissing his ex-boyfriend.
Going into Idol, I assumed, 'OK, people are going to talk, he says. I mean, I ve been living in Los Angeles for eight years as a gay man, I ve been at clubs making out with somebody in the corner. But photographic evidence? Didn t count on that. Wasn t ready for that.
He says he worried that a public announcement would overshadow his singing, so he decided not to respond and largely kept his personal life under wraps on the show.
I m an entertainer, and who I am and what I do in my personal life is a separate thing, he says. It shouldn t matter. Except it does. It s really confusing.
Lambert says he isn t interested in being the poster child for gay rights.
I m trying to be a singer, not a civil-rights leader, he says.
He also reveals that he began smoking pot and tried Ecstasy for the first time while performing in a European production of Hair in his early twenties.
I ve finally checked in to my self-worth for the first time in my life, and the fact that it has coincided with Idol is so sweet, he says. I mean, I still have moments where I think, Oh, my skin is terrible, and I m a little fat, I should really go to the gym more. But for the most part, when I look in the mirror now, I finally see someone who can do something cool.