"I don't think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear I'm gay," American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert tells the new issue of Rolling Stone. "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."
Lambert says he decided to wait to come out in Rolling Stone because it would be "cooler."
He explains, "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.' I'm proud of my sexuality. I embrace it. It's just another part of me."
According to Rolling Stone, Adam was open about his sexuality backstage at Idol. Lambert admits that he was nervous about coming out while Idol was still on the air because contestants are under a media embargo, preventing them from talking to reporters, and he wanted to do it on his "own terms." (He also says producers were open to him handling it however he wanted to.)
"I was worried that [coming out] would be so sensationalized that it would overshadow what I was there to do, which was sing," Lambert tells the mag. "I'm an entertainer, and who I am and what I do in my personal life is a separate thing. it shouldn't matter. Except it does. It's really confusing."
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.
Despite being gay, Glambert says he enjoys attention from the ladies too. "I loved it this season when the girls went crazy for me," he says. "As far as I'm concerned, it's all hot."
Plus, Adam reveals to Rolling Stone that he had a crush on Idol winner Kris Allen during the show!
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."
Glambert also talks about the many photos of him dressed in drag and making out with boys that leaked on the Internets. He says that 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 says. "I've only dressed in drag three or four times. … I don't tuck and wear breasts, that's not me."
Lambert proclaims that he supports the gay-rights movement but doesn't want to be really involved. Mkay. "I'm trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader," he says.
Stereotypes about gays do annoy Adam. "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 Rolling Stone.
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.
Lambert credits the FOX reality show with helping him gain self confidence.
"I finally checked into my self-worth for the first time in my life, and the fact that it 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 somebody who can do something cool."
