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HOLLYWOOD – Kicking off another typical seven-day work week at his management company, 19 Entertainment, Adam Lambert fixed his gaze on his own pretty face.
Scattered across his publicist’s desk were proof sheets from a photo session with the singer, who will release his debut album on RCA Records, “For Your Entertainment,” on Nov. 23. The shots captured Lambert in typical glam-god poses: peacock, street tough, space oddity, freaky adventurer in the boudoir of the damned.
Lambert, who in person is none of those things but rather a startlingly grounded 27-year-old radiating Southern Californian optimism, took up a red pencil and circled a frame. “This one needs a little fix here,” he said. It’s all part of one big performance for Lambert as he works to resurrect rock in the pop age.
But hold on. When such hyperbole is thrust at him – an “American Idol” contestant last year who broke ground as the most successful Idol to be rock-oriented, androgynous and gay – he lifts a ring-laden hand to brush it away.
“I want to put it out there that I don’t take myself all that seriously,” he said.
“The dress-up supports that; the fantasy element supports it. People want to talk about whether I have rock cred, whether I’m selling out, the theatricality, the gay stuff. … Chill out! And just enjoy yourself. It’s not that deep.”
Then he corrected himself, slightly.
“Sometimes it is deep. Some of the songs on the album are,” he admitted, pointing to the song “Soaked,” a sweeping epic about the loneliness of one-night stands. He also singled out “Broken Open,” a ballad he co-wrote, which he said is about encouraging a lover to become vulnerable enough to cry.
“But sometimes it’s just, ‘This is hot, I feel good, this song makes me want to go get a drink and flirt with somebody and have a good time.’ Good energy is just as credible as the cathartic, dark, heavy (stuff),” he said. “It’s just as important!”
This might be the most exciting message Lambert carries forward into one of the most intensely observed major label debuts in recent pop history. He’s reminding America that rock music can be joyful, light-spirited and sublimely silly, just as pop can explore serious subjects beyond the call to hit the dance floor. And that a rock star might also like to dance.
Lambert readily admits a huge debt to David Bowie, whom he describes as “my favorite,” and other glam and classic rockers such as Mick Jagger and Marc Bolan of T. Rex. (More surprising, he repeatedly cites Prince and Michael Jackson.) Lambert’s efforts to succeed as a rocker will hinge on his ability to tap into the legacy Bowie and those others represent. His “emo” side, linking him to bands like Fall Out Boy, also helps. But it’s hard to know whether rock radio will embrace him.
“When bands like Fall Out Boy and All American Rejects first came out, they got airplay on modern-rock stations,” noted Leslie Fram, program director of New York’s 101.9 RXP FM. “But when they crossed over to the Top 40, it was the nail in the coffin. They went over to the pop side, image-wise, and modern-rock radio wanted nothing to do with them.”
Lambert’s trying to succeed in both the rock and pop camps at once. He loves his glam, but he acknowledges that, in terms of today’s stars, he has more in common with Beyoncé than with Chris Daughtry.
“People look at me and immediately say, ‘Oh, he’s doing the musical-theater thing,’ ” he said. “But if you look at most female pop stars right now, how are they any less theater? Beyoncé is doing ‘Single Ladies’ with two girls in character shoes and leotards, doing Fosse choreography from ‘Sweet Charity,’ and ‘West Side Story.’ ”
Lambert is certainly enjoying his bigger budget now – especially the “expensive, beautiful and weird” clothes – but he seems to have preserved the perspective he gained hanging out with serious bohemians.
He knows how to play the music industry game. He raided the executive suites for collaborators on “For Your Entertainment”: its songwriters include hit-makers Max Martin, Ryan Tedder, Linda Perry, Dr. Luke and “Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi, and his producers include big names like RedOne and Rob Cavallo.
“I listen to crazy, robust rock music where they sing their faces off, and soul music, which can be similar,” Lambert said. “But I also listen to a lot of dance music. I love that style. I was a Paula Abdul fan, a Michael Jackson fan, a Madonna fan. When Christina Aguilera came out when I was in high school, that was a great example of someone taking the pop-dance feel but who could really sing. Pop stars have done it; it’s just not a lot of guys have done it. Maybe it’s a question of masculine persona.”
As an openly gay man during a time when that identity has become more acceptable (in the media, at least), Lambert starts with a surprising advantage over apparently straight rockers: He’s expected to be in touch with his feminine side.
“I’m the gay guy pushing the straight boundaries,” he said. “But that’s what I did on the show! Like when I did ‘Ring of Fire,’ I went full-on with eye makeup, a really weird outfit and leather. The very next week, I did ‘Tracks of My Tears’ in a suit, looking really hetero. I was playing with my image. It wasn’t that I was trying to be straight.”
His playful pan-sexuality and flamboyant swagger, once qualities common to hard rockers, are now owned by the likes of Pink and Lady Gaga. Lambert understands that. He also cites Justin Timberlake as a kindred spirit, if not musically, then in terms of showmanship and fluid style.
“I think the next generation coming up is a little bit more open-minded,” he said. “More accepting, more colorful, more multi-genre, multiethnic, multi-sexuality, which is more utopian. Or I think so. I hope so.”
What separates Lambert from much of pop’s young elite is his voice, an instrument whose timbre, power and range recalls those titans of hard rock.
Lambert studied opera as a teenager, then turned away from lessons for a while.
“I started rejecting the proper way to sing, and I started singing,” he said. “I was listening to more and more rock music and wondering, wow, how does that person do that with their voice?”
He discovered there was no name for what rock singers do. Lambert’s singing, like his taste and his style, put him beyond a boundary.
“I met with (a vocal coach) over the summer and talked to him about it, and the funny thing was, you know when I do those little, crazy, screamy notes? He’s like, ‘We don’t really have a way to teach that. It kind of goes outside of our box.’ Those notes that sound sort of like rock-scream, no one ever taught me to do. I sort of had to teach myself. You just do it. It’s just a sound you make.”
