Adam Lambert sat down with ET Canada’s Keshia Chanté for a new One-on-One special, where he opened up about musical influences.
Discussing the responsibility he feels as an LGBTQ+ role model, Lambert was asked to recall the role models that influenced him when he was young.
“Oh, that’s a really good question,” he said.
“I mean, one of the things that kind of ties into this is that I didn’t really have a big role model as far as being a gay man, I had role models in other ways, you know?” he explained.
“I grew up with Madonna and Michael Jackson as sort of the king and queen, you know, and they were brilliant,” Lambert revealed, adding that “there’s a few that feel like, you know, touchstones for, like, my love for music and pop and Freddie [Mercury], of course, Freddie. But I didn’t really have I think as far as like being queer, there wasn’t a lot.”
Meanwhile, when the Queen frontman has new music to share, his boyfriend Oliver Gliese is at the top of a short list of people who get to hear it first.
READ MORE: Adam Lambert Says Gender Fluidity Is ‘So Much More Accepted And Visible’ Now
“My boyfriend, my family, my manager. I’m really for everybody — friends,” he said. “I have, like a group of friends that are musicians that I always send stuff to. I want to get their take on it. Yeah, well, before it’s like mixed or mastered or finished first demos, ‘What do you think? Is this okay?'”
In fact, Lambert revealed that his boyfriend isn’t shy about sharing his opinion when he doesn’t like something.
“Sometimes he does say that,” Lambert said. “I mean, we have very different music tastes, so it’s fine, you know, but that’s what I like. I like to just hear an opinion about it, you know? And I love the people in my life that will tell me their honest opinion and the truth and not just tell me what I want to hear… it’s really nice actually to have that kind of feedback. Keeps you humble.”
ET Canada’s One-on-One special with Adam Lambert airs tonight at 7 p.m. ET/PT on Global.
