Adam Lambert's Rolling Stone Cover Shoot: The Photos

"I can't even put into words what it feels like to be offered the cover," Adam Lambert told us at his Rolling Stone photo shoot. When he saw his final cover for the first time — snake coiled around his leg and all — he reacted kind of like he predicted he would back at the Smashbox Studios session with Matthew Rolston: "I'll just kind of sit and stare at it for a little while." (Check out Lambert's response for yourself in the video he recorded for us.)

Lambert held nothing back in Vanessa Grigoriadis' cover story, opening up about the mind-expanding Burning Man trip that led him to Idol, his coming-out experience and his relationship with roomie Kris Allen. And he let loose for our cameras, too, letting Rolston shoot him applying his eye makeup, glammed out with a microphone, and unleashing his inner Wild Idol. Check out Lambert in his variety of poses — including exclusive shots you won't find anywhere else — here:

• Adam Lambert's Rolling Stone Cover Shoot: The Wild Idol Lets Loose

Plus, curious about the green tree python getting acquainted with Lambert in his cover shot? Flip through more Rolling Stone covers featuring the animal kingdom here:

• Unleashing the Beasts: Animals on the Cover of Rolling Stone

And don't miss the rest of our Lambert galleries and video:

• Adam Lambert: The Early Years
• American Idol's Glam-Rock Sex God
• On the Set of Adam Lambert's Cover Shoot

"Wild Idol: The Psychedelic Transformation and Sexual Liberation of Adam Lambert" in our new issue is on sale now.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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