‘Yeah, I’m theatrical and I’m proud of it’
Honolulu, prepare for a glitter tsunami. Adam Lambert, whose performances have been described as brilliant madness, is sweeping into the Aloha State with his Glam Nation Tour.
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credit his parents for shaping the values that guide him. Leila and Eber Lambert gave their son a precious gift - an emotional underpinning of acceptance and love that gives him the personal resiliency he draws on to deal with the knocks that come with fame.
“My mother is ... I guess you’d call her a social butterfly,” he says. He learned from her how to deal with people and situations gracefully and with humor. His father, Lambert says, is charismatic and clever, and can walk into a room and command attention. But more importantly, the father was always 100 percent supportive of his son, not a small thing for a boy who realized he was “different” when he was 12 years old.
And that, of course, leads us to what Lambert once jokingly referred to as the “pink elephant in the room.”
“My dreidel spins the other way.” -Adam Lambert on “The View”
Lambert has been “out” since he was 18, and has never concealed his sexual orientation. The speculation while he was on Idol amused and mystified him. But he’s clear about one thing. “I’m not the ‘gay’ singer. I’m a singer.”
But he also understands that he is in a position to help not just kids who are gay, but anyone who feels different or lonely or alienated. He willingly speaks up if he thinks it will help.
I read him the words of the mother of a gay son who e-mailed me a day after Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed Hawaii’s civil unions bill (I’ve changed the name and some of the wording to protect this family’s privacy):
“This week has been very difficult for our family. Our son, Alex, is witty, intelligent and creative. Tonight during the dinner, Alex said that he is a second-class citizen. He left the table. I can’t find words to explain our heartache.”
Short silence, and then Lambert replies: “Well, it is about being second-class citizens. And it is about equality.” Lambert says he fails to understand how people cannot see something so obvious. And while he generally avoids getting involved in politics, he recently recorded a YouTube message for gay teens. The “It Gets Better” site was created in response to the recent rash of teen suicides. His message? Believe in yourself and focus on the positive.
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Lambert believes he is making the strongest statement of all by living his life openly, honestly and without apologies. Lambert lives what others preach.
It’s made him a hero to 17-year-old Kris Farrell.
“It’s really important to me because I’m gay. He can show the world, ‘This is who I am, this is me.‘And I can look at that and I can be like, I can do that, too.”
“I don’t know the secret for success, but the secret for failure is to try and please everybody.”
Lambert has said he wants longevity in the music business. But during our conversation he says he wants more ...
“I want to be a game changer.”
He’s about to start work on a new album, and is savvy enough to understand he has to make smart business decisions in order to carve a place for himself on the pop charts.
But, for him, artistic expression - and the music - come first. He has ideas for songs that will “show more sides of myself, more vulnerability.”
There is one thing he will never give up in the name of success. Lambert insists on keeping his life, his relationships and his music as authentic - as real - as possible. That authenticity is what may finally catapult him from successful pop singer to cultural touch-stone.
There is a point of revelation in the concert where Lambert, accompanied only by an acoustic guitar, sits on a darkened stage and sings. Stripped of the plugged-in cacophony of electronics and drums, his voice - unadorned - rings out exquisite and pure into the night.
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He wrote the song, Aftermath, about finding love and strength within yourself.
“Wanna scream out, no more hiding,
Don’t be afraid of what’s inside.
Gonna tell ya you’ll be alright
In the Aftermath. Anytime anybody pulls you down, anytime anybody says you’re not allowed,
Just remember you are not alone
In the Aftermath ...”
It is an authentic moment - and beautiful. It says a lot about Adam Mitchel Lambert. He wants to be a game changer. And he will do it honestly, without fear, and by being himself.
Adam Lambert’s Glam Nation Tour at Blaisdell Concert Hall, Oct. 25 and 26. As of this printing, the Oct. 25 show is sold out.
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