From Idol runner-up to global music sensation, it's been a meteoric rise for Adam Lambert. And, thanks to the media, there's been plenty of controversy and hoopla along the way. Garrett Bithell caught up with the pop star on the eve of his Australian tour.
Adam Lambert clearly struck a chord when he was last in the country for this year's Mardi Gras festival. When news dropped that his Glam Nation tour would hit the east coast, the majority of tickets were snapped up pre-sale. Then last month it was announced that due to overwhelming demand, both the Sydney and Melbourne shows are moving to bigger venues, and the tour will now include a stop in New Zealand.
But this is not unusual for Lambert, whose trajectory to pop stardom began less than two short years ago when he was the runner up on the eighth season of American Idol. Proving that the winner does not necessarily take it all, he has been steamrolling glitter and leather into the music industry like a neo-glam Valkyrie ever since. His vocal virtuosity - he has the falsetto extension of Freddie Mercury - and ballsy theatricality reminiscent of Lady Gaga or Scissor Sisters sent the American populace into a spin.
The lofty calibre of music-industry luminaries that leapt at the chance to collaborate with Lambert on his debut album For Your Entertainment, which was released here in March, is perhaps the best indication of this. Pink gave him her song 'Whataya Want From Me'; Lady Gaga co-wrote 'Fever'; Matthew Bellamy from Muse penned 'Stoke'; and Justin Hawkins from the Darkness is behind 'Music Again'.
Shortly after American Idol finished, Lambert came out on the cover of Rolling Stone. It wasn't exactly a shock, but he then landed in a hotbed of controversy after a live performance on the American Music Awards, during which he passionately kissed his male keyboardist and simulated oral sex with one of his male dancers, who he led around the stage on a leash. Complaints poured in, and his appearance on the ABC network the next day was cancelled. Indeed, even now, Lambert is still trying to strike a balance between his artistic integrity and commercial sensibility.
"There's definitely a line," he tells SX. "Ultimately I want to be accepted and I want to entertain people - and there is a point where you can push them too far over the edge and you end up alienating your audience, which is something I don't want. I definitely won't back down from my major principles - I have my integrity there - but there is a point to which you can push those principles.
"I don't have an ulterior motive or agenda besides the fact I want to entertain people, but it just so happens that I'm a pretty sexual person. And to me, that's half of what pop-rock music is - it's about romance, heartbreak and sex. So I want to keep it real when I'm up on stage, and if I want to express my sexuality, it's going to be homosexuality!"
Lambert admits to having a fairly turbulent relationship with the media. "I have a love-hate relationship with them," he says. "It's a double-edged sword. I've had a lot of great, positive interactions with the media, and then I've had certain interviews where they've taken something out of context and exploited and sensationalised it, and turned it into a headline. And they sometimes just give complete misinformation.
"I actually saw something the other day that I found quite funny - there was a headline that just said: 'Adam Lambert already tired on tour'. What is that?! So I clicked on it, and someone had asked me if I ever get tired, and all I said was 'yeah I get tired sometimes'. And now that's the headline! Oh Jesus."
Indeed it's funny following how America's frigid media organisations report on Lambert. They often just don't get it. Ever since that cheeky pash with his keyboardist at the American Music Awards, reporters have been following his tour closely, frantically trying to piece together a fantasy romance narrative. Headlines such as 'Adam Lambert's guitarist kisses his sweaty shoulder' are almost de rigueur.
"That whole thing with him is just really funny," Lambert laughs. "We're just good friends, and we get a kick out of getting a rise out of the females in the audience. He's straight, and he's gotten so much action from all this!"
And the media is so easy to bait, Lambert insists. "I get a little cheeky from time to time," he says. "I don't think I've ever straight out lied about anything - I'm a pretty honest person – but I definitely like to push buttons back. It's only fair, right?"
Meanwhile, Lambert is gearing up for some Aussie action. "I had so much fun last time," he says. "What I love about Australia is that it's so liberal, so open - people really tend to just live and let live. I'm an idealist by nature and I would hope that some day certain areas of my country could get to that level of progression.
"I actually even made a couple of friends while I was there, so hopefully we can hang out a bit."
http://sxnews.gaynewsnetwork.com.au/
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