Fearless American Idol alumnus Adam Lambert chats to Garrett Bithell ahead of the Australian release of his debut album, For Your Entertainment.

He got drunk with Lady Gaga, who produced a track on his album, ‘Fever’.

“She is somewhat eccentric, but so am I – so we got on really well. We sat down and talked about the business and got to know each other. We played each other some music we’d been working on, had a couple of cocktails and recorded the song! She’s amazing – she takes risks and she’s very different as far as what she’s willing to do as a performer.”

Pink and Matthew Bellamy, the lead singer of Muse, also jumped on board.

“With Matt Bellamy in particular, I was like ‘are you kidding me?’ I look up to Muse and I love their music so much. And Pink is just unbelievable. She’s an absolute force! So it meant a lot getting her stamp of approval on the album.”

He was the first artist to convince Led Zeppelin to give copyright clearance to American Idol so he could sing ‘Whole Lotta Love’ during the competition.

“Apparently a couple of members of Led Zeppelin had kids who enjoyed what I was doing on the show, so they cleared it. It was amazing – I was so honoured they would do that for me!”

He challenged homophobic hypocrisy during his performance at the American Music Awards by pashing his male keyboardist and simulating oral sex with one of his male dancers. A massive public outcry ensued and he was banned from appearing on the ABC. 

“I didn’t do anything wrong. Female artists – and hetero male artists – have been doing that sort of thing for years, and there was a total double standard at play. The fact that I’m a gay guy and the acts themselves were homoerotic, that’s why there was a backlash. And that sucks. So it pissed me off and I spoke up about it, which is of course pissed more people off!”

He came out on the cover of Rolling Stone.

“I wanted to break down the cookie-cutter image that people like to think everybody is on American Idol. I talked about my sex life, drugs, everything. I wanted to be really honest and three-dimensional.”

Adam Lambert’s debut album, For Your Entertainment, is out on March 5 through Sony Music.