American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert (left) has landed the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, where he talks about sex, drugs and his 'Idol' experiences. --PHOTO: AP
NEW 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.
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'.
'I'm proud of my sexuality,' he says. 'I embrace it. It's just another part of me.'
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, (bleep), 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 per cent 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.' -- AP
