Adam Lambert comes out to Rolling Stone, and a change has come indeed
The days of "don't ask, don't tell" are over for Adam Lambert. Rolling Stone magazine has posted a preview of the cover story in which Lambert unabashedly confirms his homosexuality, and the excerpts online indicate that, from this day forward, this season's groundbreaking "Idol" expects the media and his fans to accept him for who he is, with neither scandalized whispers nor rainbow flag-waving rallies of support.
Though he's been criticized by some for being coy about his orientation, Lambert's behavior never exactly mimicked that official American policy of tacit denial. He reinvented "don't ask, don't tell" in clever Hollywood fashion, as "do hint, don't drop that eyebrow."
Through forceful insinuation (tight pants, well-place brooches, singing "Whole Lotta Love" and "A Change Is Gonna Come") and the ongoing insistence that it didn't matter anyway, Lambert eased the pop-loving public into embracing him no matter whom he enjoyed embracing. He also played out another aspect of his ongoing revival of classic rock, whose prancing frontmen and women have always projected the kind of free-floating pheromone haze that confounds specific commitments.
Traditionally, rock deities don't commit to gender or type; their job is to open up a fantasy space in which any fan can imagine herself as both the object of desire and a star herself, generating all that heat. Jagger, Joplin, Bowie, Prince, even moody Kurt Cobain: Each of these legendary names cultivated an aura of openness and fluidity that mirrors the sensual effect of their music itself. That's what Lambert clearly wants to do, and now that he's signed his contract with the "Idol"-attached 19 management and RCA Records, he can start to focus on the goal.
But first, that self-outing. Though it's definitely a media event, Lambert's interview with ace Stone reporter Vanessa Grigoriadis also seems like something to be gotten out of the way. Recently photographed holding hands with the fabulously-named Errol Flynn lookalike Drake LaBry, Lambert has apparently returned to the West Hollywood-based life he lived before he became an Idol, just with many more paparazzi in tow.
Yet because Lambert has emerged as a star in a charged political moment -- right in the middle of the nationwide struggle over same-sex marriage -- the way he describes his own relationships has a powerful ripple effect. Furthermore, as a public figure in a field (entertainment) whose relationship with the closet is long and fraught, Lambert has to face the fact that his every move will be held up to scrutiny.
That's why his choice of Rolling Stone as a venue for discussing his sexuality is particularly interesting. As a self-styled retro-nuevo rocker, Lambert probably just thought that that cover was a cool get. But it's also one that profoundly connects to pop's complicated sexual history.
In 1976, Elton John gave a famous interview in the magazine, in which he declared himself bisexual. The feature had an apparent immediate effect on the chart-topper's career. Though John himself dismissed the career crash that followed as coincidental (and more due to his own drug-fueled, imploding personal situation at the time), there's evidence to the contrary.
In his biography of John, David Buckley describes the admission as a kind of "halfway house, a code that homosexuals tended to use to admit they were gay." (He also notes that other interviews John gave around that time suggested that -- then, at least -- "his sexual orientation was genuinely bisexual.") But even cracking that door open apparently alienated many of John's fans.
Gary Osborne, John's frequent collaborator during this period, is quoted about the drop in sales that came after the Stone article. "In Middle America, his sales slumped dramatically," Osborne said, adding that he was proud of John for telling interviewer Cliff Jahr that he was bisexual, because "he chose to do it himself. He wasn't outed. People who knew about his sexual orientation didn't see any reason to out him."
One thing is sure: Before that Rolling Stone interview, Elton John was a pop idol -- as Adam Lambert is today. He was one of the most popular cover boys for the teen publication 16 Magazine. Danny Fields, then an editor at 16, has often noted that John's popularity plummeted after the piece was published. First, the teen publication received a wave of letters from young women, saying, "My brother read in Rolling Stone that Elton John is bisexual. Please say it isn't so ..." Then, after the magazine published a commentary saying that, indeed, it was so and that fans should still support John, the letters stopped. According to Fields, John went from being "the No. 1 mail getter to none."
Much has changed since then. John and his husband, David Furnish, are a high-society couple; just this week, he was serenaded by the openly gay Hollywood heartthrob Neil Patrick Harris after winning top honors at the Tony Awards.
Yet even mainstream rock remains a mostly heterosexual preserve. Young male artists, especially, often uphold the old androgynous-but-really-into-chicks stereotype.
Think of the top younger mainstream rock acts of 2009: Nickelback, Hinder and Buckcherry all re-enact the stripper-loving antics of hair metal, while "alternative" favorites Kings of Leon specialize in rootsy swagger that's more cowboyish than glam. When that band recently appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, its members were described as "God-fearing" and "booze-swilling." That's as macho as rock and roll gets.
Rolling Stone, known for cover stories featuring scantily clad starlets and grizzled rock legends, remains the main official outlet for this kind of classic rock mythification. Its own history reflects the music scene's often muddled relationship with sexual liberation. It's into this fraught arena that Adam Lambert steps. By clearing up a few things, he's making progress, not just for himself.
-- Ann Powers
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Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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