Adam Lambert in His Own Words: Sexuality, Kris Allen and Life After Idol

On his early attempts at songwriting:
My songs were like campy, sexy electro, like Peaches and Goldfrapp. I can look back now and realize I wasn't very good at it. I was trying to put in way too many words. I was trying to be way too melodramatic and serious, you know? It's like what a junior high student does with poetry. But over the course of a couple years, I started really trying to listen to what worked out there in music, like hooks — and realized that less is more. The simple idea is better in a song.

On life after Idol:
I'm hopeful. I have a great opportunity right now. There are a lot of people who want to work with me that I really respect. And hopefully it works. I'm not cocky because I've seen a lot of guys come off this show and bomb, so I recognize that I could crash and burn. But if I play it safe, it's not going to work, so I might as well go for it with the same intention that I had on the show.

On where he wants to go musically:
I want to do something that has theatricality, a nod to the glam rockers that I love, but is also contemporary. It's not all going to be happy-go-lucky because I think it's important to explore other emotional parts of yourself as an artist, but there's a time and place for it. I would love to work with Madonna. I'm a big fan. I just want to play dress up and be fabulous. When you're a kid, you do the make-believe thing — you play dress-up and pretend. That's the child mentality, and I feel like if you're an adult and you can adopt the child mentality to something cool, that's what being a "rock star" is. It's just playing. It's Halloween. It's make-believe. It's fun. And who doesn't want to do that? That's the kind of music that I want to make — music that encourages people to play make-believe, escape and have fun.