When I was kid, I remember playing 'Vogue' by Madonna over and over and over again. And ah, you know, something about the beat was really cool, and Madonna, visually, was on TV all the time and I thought she was just so beautiful.Collection: Cool
Los Angeles can be a really sad city.Collection: Sad
I've been kind of toying around with the bi thing in my head. I wouldn't ever give myself the label 'bisexual', but bi-curious? Yea.
People want to talk about whether I have rock cred, whether I'm selling out, the theatricality, the gay stuff... Chill out! And just enjoy yourself.
There's a certain level of pageantry with 'Idol,' and in order to work the show, you kind of have to feed into it.
My M.O. is just do what you do and don't feel like you have to make apologies for it. I'm sure there will come a point when I have to apologize for something, but not yet.
I think Lady Gaga is great and is changing pop music and bringing back a certain rock 'n' roll spirit, swagger to the game.
I've been known to make out with girls from time to time. Couple drinks involved, you know. It's fun. And who knows? Maybe it'll go further someday. I don't know.
I have crushes on women all the time. I don't have intimate relationships with them, but I find women beautiful.
I knew that it was my only shot to be taken seriously in the recording industry, because it's fast and broad.
I think theatricality is just one way of performing. I don't think it's a better way or the way, but it's my way.
The biggest risk I've ever taken is going on American Idol and trying to be myself. I wasn't going to try too hard to conform, and I knew that it could possibly not work out.
Female performers have been doing this for years - pushing the envelope about sexuality - and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out.
You can't plan everything - if I did a performance exactly how I rehearsed it, it would be so boring.
I try to go throughout my daily life just as if nothing has changed, but you don't have much anonymity anymore, which feels really good. People come up, and say hi and they enjoy your work.
So pretty much, to sum it up, if you can freak someone out and bring that kind of emotion out of somebody with a song, you're doing something right.
Those shows I did with Queen were pretty surreal. I was really excited and super-flattered, but intimidated at the same time.
A lot of my male vocal influences are British - people like David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant.
There are female artists I can look at that I find more in common with than the male artists, because they're blending the pop, dance and theatricality... but currently there aren't a lot of guys who go there.