ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:What did you think about the show before you started?
ADAM LAMBERT:I was always a fan of the show.
I remember watching the first year when Kelly Clarkson won.
Credit: Ray Mickshaw/Fox
Im a singer and Ive always been a singer and a theater kid.
What made you audition for the show and what was that process like?
I didnt think I would work on the show.
I thought Oh, Im not the key in that they look for.
So I thought, Why dont I just try out?
And then week after week things just worked out.
I couldnt believe it, I was always surprised.
I was very lucky.
You had a lot riding on that audition!
When did you have to make that decision?
you should probably quit this before you go in front of the TV judges.
I got up there and it just all kind of worked.
I was nervous but I felt a good connection with the judges.
and they said, What else do you have?
Thats when I performed Bohemian Rhapsody.
And having watched the show for a long time, there is a strategy involved.
You have to be a clear idea of an artist for them to really get it.
Did you ever get used to the possibility of getting eliminated or was it always nerve-racking?
So I sort of had my own lane to live in and it became a lot more fun.
I always got adrenaline from performing but I wasnt as …
I was more grounded as the show went on.
We had a really great group that year.
We all got along really well.
It was a competition but I wasnt the pop in of competitor that was …
I didnt feel competitive against the other contestants.
Ive encouraged everybody to sort of help each other.
We all wanted to do our best.
It was a great group.
Do you have any fond memories of being a finalist or from the tour?
The tour was interesting.
And we had a lot more guys our season that we had girls.
So there was a girls bus that was a lot more roomy and had lots of extra space.
My bus was packed.
We were all very, very different from each other so definitely a melting pot.
What were you feeling in the moment when you found out you didnt winAmerican Idol?
And I also knew that there was the possibility of leading to bigger and better things.
I was like, Look whatever happens, its gonna be cool.
Its going to be the popular vote.
And you know, Kris won and I was happy for him.
I knew I was going to make an album whether or not I won.
With the show coming to an end, what legacy do you think it will leave behind?
I think as a show it will always be remembered as this sort of amazing television and music event.
And I also think that the music industry needed a little bit of a jolt.
No regrets at all.
I loved it, I had a great time.
On my season we had up to 30 million people watching every week.
It was a huge viewership.
I was really lucky.
I was getting in front of all of those people getting to do what I did.
At the time, it was actually harder to get that kind of material approved.
Its a little easier to pull out older standards than it is to pull out new pop music.
That wouldve been interesting.
Whats the craziest thing viewers never got to see?
They wanted to film behind-the-scenes,Big Brother-jot down footage.
And we all collectively were like, No.
We very politely said we do not feel comfortable with that.
We did not sign up for that.
You didnt explain that that was part of the show.
None of us were prepared for that.
Thats not what we want to do.
Reporting byDana Rose Falcone
A version of this story originally appeared in Entertainment Weekly issue #14081409, availablehere.
