I recently had the immense delight and honor of interviewing at length one of my all-time favorite singers, pop multi-hyphenate Adam Lambert, for the Film & Television fall 2024 issue of Music Connection magazine.

We discussed his boldly erotic new EP; upcoming Broadway debut in Cabaret; ITV docuseries Adam Lambert: Out, Loud and Proud; acting ambitions; underrated 2012 sophomore album (“Justice for Trespassing!”); and wild, 15-year journey from American Idol to AFTERS, among other hot topics.

“I ain’t letting go anytime soon. That’s my thing. I’m not giving up. I don’t go away,” Lambert told  me. “I do feel I’ve come a long way. It’s about just giving less of a fuck, not being concerned with not everyone liking it. And that comes with experience. Having been in the business this long, being on the road with Queen for 10-plus years, I feel I’ve earned the right to say, ‘Fuck it. I’m going to do what I want. Life’s too short.’”

READ THE COVER STORY HERE

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This week, German and French television premiered Queen: We Are the Champions, which tells the story of the greatest sports anthem of all time. The documentary was directed by longtime Queen associate Hannes Rossacher and features new interviews with Brian May, Roger Taylor… and me! While the film has not aired in the U.S. yet, if you are overseas you can see me talk about the resonance of Queen’s anthems and how Adam Lambert has ascended to Freddie Mercury’s throne.

Fifteen years ago, on Jan. 20, 2009, I wrote for the first time (admittedly somewhat fawningly/cringe-worthily) about Adam Lambert, when his Season 8 American Idol audition aired. 

And not to gloat too much, but history has proven that I was totally right about him. And I never quite stopped fawning. How has it been 15 years already?

So, to celebrate a decade and a half of Glambertmania, below I have compiled all of the interviews I’ve done with Lambert over the years, from our first conversation at CenterStaging in Burbank at the Idols Live! tour rehearsals, all the way through to 2023′s chat about his most recent album, the full-circle covers collection High Drama.

Here’s to many more years, and congratulations to Adam for all of his success so far.

Idols Live! rehearsal interview, 2009

Backstage at Staples Center, 2009

Backstage in Syracuse, 2009

Gridlock New Year’s Eve, 2009

The famous “Front Porch” interview, part 1 and part 2, 2010

Backstage at the OC Fair (while Sutan Amrull, aka Season 3 RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Raja, does Adam’s makeup), 2010

Grammy Event, 2011

Grammy Event, 2012

Trespassing interview, part 1 and part 2, 2012

Backstage at American Idol Season 11, 2012

VH1 Divas Live preview interview, 2012

Backstage at American Idol Season 12 finale, 2013

Live Proud event, 2013

Trevor Project event, 2013

Live Proud event, 2014

The Original High interview, 2016

“Two Fux” interview, 2017

 Velvet interview, 2019

“Witch-Hunt” tour/Halloween interview, 2022

High Drama interview, 2023

The two-hour show also features interviews with Brian May, Roger Taylor, Adam Lambert and his family, Simon Cowell, Rami Malek, and the Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins. Airing April 29 on ABC at 8 p.m.!

Queen + Adam Lambert kick off their limited-run Las Vegas residency at the Park Theater this Saturday, Sept. 1. It’s an event that has been a long time coming. Truly, from the moment Lambert first entered America’s living rooms and the American Idol audition room nine (yes, NINE) years ago and belted out “Bohemian Rhapsody,” he seemed fit for a Queen and destined to one day front the legendary glam-rock group.

Lambert may have lost the Season 8 Idol title to Kris Allen, but he was undoubtedly the winner of that season’s splashy finale, when he and Allen joined Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor for a spectacular performance of the fittingly titled “We Are the Champions.” While Allen held his own that evening, it was clear from the look on May’s face that he was especially amazed by the rock chops of “a wonderful singer called Adam Lambert.”

“It was a nice time, because both of those boys were great, but there was something about Adam,” May tells Yahoo Entertainment while promoting his retrospective photo book, Queen in 3-D, which has an entire chapter, “Madame Lambert,” devoted to Adam. “This chemistry was instant, and it was like we were already kind of in a band with him. It’s quite strange. [He didn't join Queen] for a little while afterwards, because [he] couldn’t. He was under contract to the American Idol people. But when we had the opportunity to work with him, we did three songs in Ireland for an awards show [the 2011 MTV Europe Awards]. We did ‘The Show Must Go On,’ ‘We Are the Champions,’ and ‘We Will Rock You,’ and everybody, including us, went, ‘Oh, this works. It just has it. It just has the right ingredients.’”

Many European MTV viewers were unfamiliar with the Idol alum but were understandably wowed and eager to see more. Suddenly, there was demand for a new Queen world tour, and “Queenbert,” as they were jokingly nicknamed by fans, made their full concert debut at Kiev’s 140,000-capacity Independence Square at a joint show with Elton John for the Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation. Fans excitedly uploaded all two hours of the televised event to YouTube, and as more gigs followed in Russia, Eastern Europe, and England (where the supergroup played a sold-out, three-night stint at London’s Hammersmith Apollo), American fans started to wonder when they’d finally get to witness this remarkable show too.

In the Queen in 3-D book, May jokingly writes that late Queen legend Freddie Mercury would almost be downright jealous of his successor’s vocal prowess. “Freddie would love and hate him, yeah; I mean, you know, he’d be like, ‘You bastard!’” May quips. “Because, I mean, Adam has a real gift from God. That voice is a voice in a billion, and nobody has that range, nobody that I’ve ever worked with. And not just the range but the quality throughout the range and the passion to use that instrument. And I’ve seen Adam develop, just like I watched Freddie develop. … He was great to start with, but now, we’re doing something like ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ onstage, and sometimes I almost stop playing because I think, ‘What did he just do?’ He’s so free with his interpretations, and it’s spine-chilling, just the sound he makes and the way he interprets a song.”

While May stresses that Lambert “in no sense imitates Freddie” — a point that Lambert, a huge Queen fan himself, makes humbly every night onstage — May explains that Lambert “provides that piece of the jigsaw puzzle, which is, I mean, stupendous. We would never be doing this now if it weren’t for Adam.’

“It’s an incredible life. I feel so grateful that [Queen] had it. And we still have it.”

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This article originally ran on Yahoo Entertainment.

“I think there’s been talk that I’m going to be a judge [on American Idol] every year since I’ve been off the show,” chuckles Season 8 runner-up Adam Lambert, when he’s asked about recent rumors that he’ll be joining his pal and Direct Management roster-mate Katy Perry behind the judges’ table on ABC’s Idol reboot. “I don’t know where this talk comes from! I don’t think I’m going to be a judge on American Idol. But I’m always flattered by the speculation.”

Lambert is forever grateful for his Idol experience (“I owe the show the world,” he says), but the man hardly has time to commit to a regular TV gig right now. Along with his international tour fronting Queen — on which he fills the late, great Freddie Mercury’s mighty-big platform shoes and wins over fans in every city — he’s just released his glam slam of a new solo single, the unsubtly and unapologetically titled “Two Fux.”

Co-written with Trey Campbell, Big Taste, and Lambert’s longtime friends Ferras and Sarah Hudson, the delightfully attitudinal rock ’n’ roll waltz showcases the newly scarlet-haired showman at his sassy, glammy, and occasionally hammy best. It’s hard to imagine Lambert being any more confident than he already was, but on “Two Fux,” he sounds almost superhuman. And he sounds supremely comfortable in his (copiously tattooed) skin. At age 35, after eight years of being in the sometimes unforgiving public eye and five years of holding his own alongside Brian May and Roger Taylor, Lambert has gone from Idol to icon — and the role fits him like, well, those skintight red trousers he wears onstage with Queen every night.

On the eve of “Two Fux’s” release, Yahoo Music caught up with Lambert to talk about the bird-flipping, nose-thumbing message behind the single, his feelings about being an LGBTQ role model, today’s scary political climate, Prince, George Michael, and how much the world has changed since that notorious night at the 2009 American Music Awards. Namaste right here and read what he had to say.

YAHOO MUSIC: So the title and message of this song aren’t exactly subtle. What inspired it?

ADAM LAMBERT: As somebody who’s left of center, I’ve always received a bit of a side-eye from certain people. I’m used to it at this point. It can affect you in a certain way — I’ve definitely had my moments, since being in the spotlight, of hearing something and letting it get to me. But I’m in a place lately where I feel much more self-assured, in that I know exactly who and what I am — and I know what I’m not. I think with my last project [2015’s dance-pop effort The Original High], it was about that angst of chasing the original high, chasing after and longing for the unattainable — or what I think that I want. I find myself in this chapter of my life saying, “You know what? I know who I am, and I’m cool with it. And if anybody doesn’t like it, they can f*** off!” [laughs]

You say you used to be more self-conscious and you let things get to you. Can you elaborate?

I think I was more of a people pleaser for a while. I’ve shed a lot of that. I mean, as a performer I’m always going to have a bit of that, but I’m not as concerned with negative opinions now. I just want to do me. It’s just a general feeling of like, “Nah, I’m good. Namaste right here.” I think there were times in the past where I felt unsure if I was really connecting with people, but I’m seeing so many movements percolating now, with this next generation coming up — the conversations that are happening about gender, gender-fluidity, masculinity versus femininity, trans visibility. There is such an amazing awareness right now, and I’m very, very inspired by it. Even though the world is at a breaking point, I feel like this movement that’s happening, to help people understand each other and accept each other, is really inspiring to me. It gives me the hope to just do what I want and speak my mind.

It’s kind of hard to believe that only eight years ago, when you were on American Idol, the fact that you wore “guyliner” was literally front page news. Like, that was shocking to people. A lot has changed since then.

It’s literally an entirely different landscape than it was eight years ago. No one knew if me being openly gay was going to “work” — which was so funny to me, because I was like, “Well, I don’t really have a choice, that’s who I am!” But that was kind of the industry’s raised eyebrow on the whole thing. Now we have out artists that are finding total commercial success. Like me kissing a guy on the f***ing AMAs [in 2009] was like, such a scandal, and I really don’t think it would be now.

You pretty much broke the Internet that night.

People just did not know what to do! I got pulled off of Good Morning America the next day, and they censored the kiss [with male bandmate Tommy Joe Ratliff] on ABC when I got interviewed about it — even though right beforehand, they had been showing Madonna and Britney making out [on the VMAs]. Like, huh? The double standards there were running wild! I just don’t think it would be that way now. No one would care.

Do you think your success has played a part in pushing this movement towards LGBTQ acceptance forward?

Well, I think I’m one of many, many, many pieces. I’m just part of a puzzle. I will say I talk to young artists and meet fans and get messages on social media, and I’ve gotten a handful of really lovely compliments. I talked to a young, up-and-coming, queer hip-hop artist a couple weeks ago. We were chatting online about navigating being gay in the industry, and he said some really nice things. He said, “I was a kid when Idol was on, and I had never seen anybody on TV that was like you — that was clearly gay and was getting praise for what he was doing, not being made fun of. You made me feel like being [gay] would not prevent me from succeeding.” So if that is the case for other people, then I’m really thankful that that inspired them.

What inspiration do you want people to take from “Two Fux”?

I was like, “S***, I wanna lighten the mood up a little bit.” Pop can be very dark lately — even my pop, from my past album, was a little dark — and I think the world is a bit dark right now. So I thought, “Why not bring people a bit of a smile?” I definitely feel like the spirit right now in our country is interesting. There’s definitely a rebelliousness that I’m sensing. Things are tense, and there’s a lot of concern and conflict in our country right now; we’re a bit divided. Even the world’s energy right now is a little nervous. And I feel like [“Two Fux”] is the kind of vibe that hopefully can just help people feel self-assured, but also let them relax a bit and smile, because it’s not taking itself so seriously. It was the right energy that I wanted to share.

When will we hear more new solo music from you, and will it be similar to “Two Fux”?

There’s more songs in the pipeline, put it that way. … I’m sure there will be more music this year… I’m very excited. The project as a whole is leaning back to my glam-rock roots a little bit more. It’s sort of my take on modern rock. The things that I love about my favorite rock stars, people like Freddie [Mercury] and Prince and George Michael — sonically they inspire me, and also their spirit inspires me. They didn’t give two f***s. They did exactly what they wanted to do. They were very individual, and they were very unapologetic. I’m identifying with that right now. So that’s my inspiration behind the project: some of my heroes, and why they were my heroes and how they were my heroes.

We have lost too many rock stars lately. We need more new ones.

I remember thinking to myself when the sad news came down of Prince passing and then George passing, and how not too long before that Michael Jackson had passed away: “Wow, these were the guys that were absolutely who they were.” They didn’t dress like everybody else. They didn’t follow trends. They didn’t edit themselves for people’s benefit. They were very brave to be weird, to be aliens. I’ve always loved expressing myself that way, but I think I felt along the way, over the past nine years, resistance to that. I felt certain members of the music industry maybe going, “Eh, we don’t know if that will work, it’s kind of weird. Is it commercial enough?” I’ve heard that stuff. So I think for me, seeing those iconic rock stars pass away has kind of made me feel like, “You know what? I want to help carry that spirit.” As much as I can, I mean. I’m nowhere near the level of those guys. But I want to carry that vibe. I want to carry that flag of the rebel.

Onstage with Queen, you dedicate “Two Fux” to Freddie Mercury. Did he inspire this song in any way?

I wanted to dedicate it to him because when Freddie would perform live, he really was so free. He did exactly what he wanted. I saw concert footage of him years ago from Montreal, where he’s in a pair of itty-bitty white shorts and no shoes, and he’s just traipsing around the stage — it’s hilarious, actually. It’s like a kid in his bedroom. It’s beautiful to watch footage of Freddie, because he was so wild onstage. That’s the spirit of the song “Two Fux.” Like, I don’t care if you like it; I like it. I’m doing this for me.

Your new song fits really well into Queen’s set; it almost sounds like a lost Queen song. And the audience seems very receptive.

We kind of realized that at the very last minute. When I played it for [Brian May and Roger Taylor], and they said that they liked it, it was like, “Oh, that’s not really a leap stylistically, is it?”

Did your tenure with Queen also affect your move towards a more glam-rock style?

Well, I know from touring with Queen that I’ve found my groove with that classic rock sound, and have found an audience in that world, so that was definitely part of my thinking with the style of this [upcoming music]. But you know, I think people get really hung up on genre — and clearly I never have. I like throwing a bunch of different influences into one song. I like a lot of different types of music. And I think you have to have a lot of different colors to put on a good show. I just want to get back to what I love about music, and the reasons I got into music in the first place. That’s the driving force. 

I don’t suppose you care, but is there any concern that this single’s title may prevent it from getting radio or MTV airplay?

I don’t give two f***. [laughs] Streaming services are not censored. That’s all I have to say.

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This article originally appeared on Yahoo Music.

Adam Lambert just released a new album on new label Warner Bros., the Max Martin/Shellback-produced The Original High, and he has certainly experienced some highs and lows since competing on American Idol six long years ago — or even before that, when he was just another twentysomething trying to get his big break in Hollywood. Now a wise 33, he’s come out of the reality-TV wringer, a handful of scandals, and a split with RCA Records with incredible poise and his most fully realized album to date.

Lambert recently sat down to talk with Yahoo Music about what a long, strange, but always glamorous trip it’s been. All you Glamberts out there will want to watch this epic, in-depth, two-part conversation in full, but below is a handy crib sheet of some of his standout quotes — covering everything from the mainstream public’s sometimes frustrating reaction to his sexuality and how instant fame messed with his head, to why he turned down the titular role in Broadway’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch (we’re still hoping he’ll reconsider that one) and how he feels about the end of the Idol era.

This man is indeed a true original. Enjoy!

“I think it did mess with me a little bit. I think at the time I wasn’t super-upset or anything, but I think it skewed some of my decisions. I got a little reactionary in moments. It kind of fueled fire for me to prove a point, to rebel against something or be like a contrarian, push me one way or another. Looking back on it, in hindsight it’s a lot easier for me to figure it out. I look at it now and go, ‘Oh, interesting.’ I can see now how certain entities were kind of projecting their M.O. on me because I was this figure that had come up in a big show like Idol. It was a pop-culture thing. Then with the being-gay thing, that became such a sensationalized topic. It started to precede what I was even there to do, which was to sing songs for everybody. I think at the time I just took it on because that was what I was given. I didn’t really have much of a choice. I think that’s the big learning curve that I’ve experienced over the past six years: how much you can control versus how much you have to kind of surrender to. It’s a tricky thing to figure out.

“I think a lot of the scrutiny came from the sexuality, unfortunately. I think that was the root of a lot of the fascination/criticizing. Never before, up until that point, had I really thought about that actively. I was a teenager and I was struggling with it then. I came out of the closet at 18. At that point I was like, ‘Whew, I’m free. I can just be who I am, completely!’ For almost 10 years, before Idol, I was who I was. It was just a fact of my life. Then after getting off Idol, all of sudden I had to explain it and qualify it. It was at the forefront of everything I did. It wasn’t my choice. That’s what I was dealing with. That was little bit frustrating, because all of sudden it starting messing with my head, in the sense that I was thinking about it more than I ever had. Overthinking, like, ‘How am I representing myself, my sexuality, and community?’ That wasn’t ever something that was part of why I got into music in the first place. Music was just music.”

On whether The Original High is a breakup album:

“It is darker, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a breakup album. I think that’s an easy way to put it into a box. I’ve heard that a couple of times in things I’ve read, and I’m like, ‘No, not really’” Is it about relationships? Yeah, but it’s all kinds of relationships. It’s relationship to different things in life. I look at it as an album that’s kind of looking back on my 15 years in L.A., in Hollywood. My twenties I kind of spent trying to figure out my identity. My last two albums were a lot about identity, because like it or not, all of a sudden I was ‘that guy.’ This album, I had a period of time off before I started working on it. I was in a little bit of a rut creatively and personally. I was like, ‘I just don’t know what I want right now. I’m in transition personally, emotionally, spiritually. I don’t know.’ I started looking back and reliving certain things in my head and writing things down. The album kind of goes through this idea of like now that the identity is set the pursuit now is of happiness. I just want to be happy. Just like everybody. This is a common thing. I was looking around at my friends in L.A., hanging out with people doing dinners and late nights. I started asking people, ‘What is it that you want?’ Most people were kind of like, ‘I don’t know. I’m thinking about what I want right now.’ Impulse, you know, cravings, longings, desire. I think a lot of people move to these big cities like L.A. and New York and they’re kind of like, ‘OK, I want to become a star’ or ‘I want to be rich’ or ‘I want to meet the man or woman of my dreams.’ We have these big ideas, so that’s our motivating force. We’re going towards it and sometimes you get that thing and it makes you happy. Some people never quite reach it. Some people are trying to get it and they go about the wrong way and they have pitfalls. Sometimes you get it and then you go, ‘This isn’t what I wanted.’“

On what he really wants:

“I’m still trying to figure it out. I don’t really know. The album never claims to know. It’s just about the chase. The chase of whatever it is in the moment that you’re after. Bringing it back to the breakup thing, there are definitely moments on the album that talk about chasing after love, or sex, or power, or wealth, or success, or happiness, or whatever you want to call it. There’s different things that make us feel happy, or sexy, or alive. It’s about all of that. If you actually look at the lyrics to a lot of the songs they can be interpreted a lot of different ways, on purpose… [But] I’m feeling good. I put a lot of energy and priority into my career. When I’m actively at it, I’m very satisfied.”

On his memories of first moving to L.A.:

“I was just trying to figure it out. What was I, 19?… I was just looking for experience… I kept auditioning for musicals in L.A., which is kind of an oxymoron, since there’s not a lot of musical theatre there. I was trying to get my career going but I just stayed in L.A. and assimilated to that. I love nightlife, I love going out. I love socializing at night, in crowds at parties. For a while there in L.A., I was kind of a club kid. I would wear weird costumes and go to Ms. Kitty’s and all these crazy places. I loved that. I loved dressing up: Drag Strip, Club Makeup, all these clubs, I loved it. It was very free, the fantasy of it. So I guess [the new album’s title track] ‘The Original High’ is kind of looking back a bit. I even remember being at Hyde when that was like the place to be. I remember I was like 25 and at the time I started becoming enchanted with this idea of fame and being on the list. At that time that meant a lot to me. It was sort of a validation thing: ‘Oh, I’m trying to get into this. I can’t get into the club. Who do you know? How do we get in? So we know this person, now I’m friends with this person, I can get into that [club].’ It was almost like high school mentality to me. I guess that’s kind of what it is. It’s so wrapped up into the fame, celebrity thing in L.A. I definitely got seduced by that, by that idea and what that was. Now it’s weird being on the other side of it and putting it all in perspective. I see that now in other people and I’m like, ‘I remember that. I remember being on that side of things, what that desperation felt like.’ Looking back now I can see it all much more clearly. ‘The Original High,’ definitely, that song looks back on those times.”

On that ’80s covers album his former label RCA wanted him to record:

“It’s so funny, because I never considered myself somebody that’s really a ’80s music expert. I think that other people saw me there. I think some of it probably was my styling and the way I approach certain vocals that people thought, ‘Oh, ’80s.’ If I was listening to retro rock, I was listening to more ’70s, maybe early-’80s rock. But not like ’80s proper… It just didn’t resonate with me to do covers of new wave music… I already kind of got my start doing [covers, on American Idol]. And knowing that I was going to be out with Queen, covering their amazing catalog of music, I just felt like part of my career is developing signature songs and my own music. That’s what I wanted to do. ”

On getting out of his post-RCA Records rut:

“I think one of things I realized after [sophomore album] Trespassing was I was a little disappointed with the commercial life of it. I expected it to have more life. I was in a little bit of a rut because I was like, ‘Well, what do I do?’ I was trying to figure out if I wanted to make this album or not. What I realized was, I don’t know how it came into my head, ‘You got to let go of the fear here. You know you’re always going to work.’ I had a conversation with a close friend of mine who kind of shook me and was like, ‘You’re always going to have work. You’re not going to starve. You’re going to be able to put food on your table. You have a talent you can put into a number of different things. Just relax and go for it.’ It was so simple, this idea of not putting so much pressure on everything and not being so hard on myself. I’ve gotten a lot more relaxed.”

On whether he’d ever work again in musical theater:

“There’s been some offers, but I think for right now, I feel like that other chapter of my life was all of that. It was all musical theater. I think it’s an amazing art form. I have a lot of friends in musicals. I have friends that I made doing Wicked that are still some of my best friends. For right now, I want to focus on my career in the recording industry. If the right thing came up at the right time I would consider it. [Hedwig and the Angry Inch] already offered; I said, ‘I’m working on an album right now.’ There’s something really exciting about being myself… For me, it just started to feel like there’s not enough freedom in [theater] for me. I like being able to kind of go off the cuff and free-form.”

On American Idol coming to an end:

“I think when Idol came out, it was at a time where we really kind of needed that. 9/11 had just happened and the country kind of needed something to believe in. The music industry was in a weird place. It needed some fresh energy. [Idol] gave the power to the people; it let people decide who they liked and who they voted for. Then over the course of the last couple of years, it’s starting to teeter a little bit on how effective it is. I think if you look at something like YouTube, there’s been like stars that have been launched that way. And it’ll be something else next.”

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This article originally ran on Yahoo Music.