PGN FEATURE
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Philadelphia Gay News www.epgn.com May 11-17, 2012
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for a day New album, new gigs for Adam Lambert By Larry Nichols larry@epgn.com International pop star and “American Idol” alum Adam Lambert is ready to take on the world again with a new album and some hotly anticipated concert dates with legendary rock band Queen, in the place of iconic frontman Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991. Unfortunately, only fans in the U.K. and Russia will be able to catch those shows. But you never know what might come of them. Since his debut album, “For Your Entertainment,” dropped in 2009, the openly gay Lambert has sold nearly 2 million albums worldwide, earned a Grammy nomination and became the first “American Idol” alum to tour the world in support of a debut album immediately following an “Idol” season. “Trespassing,” due out May 15, finds Lambert cowriting many of the songs and collaborating with an impressive list of artists, producers and songwriters, including Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers and Bruno Mars. Lambert talked to PGN about his upcoming album and the wild ride his career has been since “American Idol” made him a household name. PGN: How does your new album, “Trespassing,” compare to your debut album?
AL: I took more time with this album. The first album I did in about two months while I was on a nationwide tour with the rest of the American Idols. So there wasn’t quite enough time to think about anything or improve on anything. In some respects, it was kind of a cool creative experience. I’m a pretty analytical kind of guy and it forced me to be more impulsive creatively. On this one I got to write a lot of music. I got to spend time improving it and fine-tuning. I recorded 40 songs for this album and the final 12 are the best of the best of the best. PGN: How did you end up getting the gig singing with Queen? AL: They came on the “American Idol” finale and we did “We are the Champions” with them. It was so surreal and there was so much going on at the time that I don’t think I
fully processed it. Recently, about three months ago, they asked me to perform with them on the European MTV Music Awards. It was such an honor to be up there with them. It felt very natural and just clicked. So they came to me and they asked me to do shows with them this summer and I said, “Yeah man, let’s do it.” PGN: So, let’s say after the performances, Queen wants to do an album or a world tour. Would you consider putting your career on hold and being their singer? AL: I don’t think I would. I’m a songwriter as well and, right now, my main priority is my album and my career. Secondly, I don’t think they are going to want to do a world tour. Those guys have been around. They are veterans. They are royalty.
Photo: Lee Cherry
I don’t think they want to bust their ass on a world tour. I think these shows are going to be an amazing event and they are going to be incredible. They’re going to be the kind of thing you can’t replicate. It’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime night. I think I’m going to learn a lot from it and I’m honored to share the stage with them, but I don’t think it’s going to be a permanent thing. PGN: Most performers who break big from “American Idol” usually do a lot of performances in the U.S. When your first album came out, you did a lot of international touring. Why did you focus so much on foreign markets? AL: When I first met with the record label when we were putting together the album, they felt I was the type of artist that would do well internationally as well as domestically. So they wanted to make sure that was part of the campaign. Other countries get “American Idol,” so some people knew about me. Regardless of that, the style of music itself had an international flavor. It was something I was excited about and the label had faith in me to do that. What’s funny is, it has almost been four years since that and music has become much more international, based on the way music is shared and sold. The European sound is very prevalent here on American radio now. So I’m glad they had the foresight.