Out100 2009

'I'm doing the best I fucking can, you know?' Adam Lambert asks, as if there's any way to satisfy all his critics or fans, none of whom even knew his name a year ago. In 2009, he catapulted from Wicked chorus boy to American Idol cover boy, all before his debut album even had a track list. For Rolling Stone he dallied with a snake; in Details he got frisky with a naked woman. 'I'm the same guy doing the same thing on a larger scale,' he says now. 'I've always been an entertainer.'

Lambert, 27, was a rare catch for Idol: a professional performer. 'I've lived in L.A. for eight years,' he says. 'It's about making a good TV show. I just wanted to be really careful that it didn't turn into a fucking pageant. I can sing my face off. All this other stuff is part of a personality, a persona.'
During the show, Lambert's strategy was to play hot and cold, camping it up one week and dressing down the next. 'To me, it's not that different,' he says. 'I'm just wearing a suit.' But when photos of him kissing an ex-boyfriend made the media rounds, Lambert freaked out. 'I was like, 'Great, that's gonna fuck things up.' It was the first time since I'd come out of the closet at 18 that I had to think about it.' He confirmed the pictures were real but didn't explicitly say he was gay until after the finale. 'I didn't want to acknowledge it as a mistake or something I was ashamed of'I'm not. It's part of who I am, but because our nation is the way it is, it's an announcement. If I lose some fans, fuck it. I need to be happy too.'

And though Lambert's comfortable speaking his mind with industry suits, navigating a new relationship with boyfriend Drake LaBry scares him. 'I've only been in love twice,' he says. 'I have a lot of life experience, but I don't know shit about love.'