Adam Lambert tones down his act

Adam Lambert tones down his act
Former 'Idol' runner-up admits AMA performance was a 'little too much.'



Adam Lambert, the ''American Idol'' runner-up whose sexually explicit performance on the American Music Awards show in November got him bounced off other network appearances, now says he realizes he went too far on that show.

''Maybe with that performance, maybe it was a little too much,'' Lambert said in a telephone news conference Wednesday. ''I think that I am specific, and I am extreme, and sometimes certain people, that's not what they're looking for.''

Lambert said the AMA performance of ''For Your Entertainment,'' in which he rubbed a male dancer's face in his crotch, tongue-kissed a male dancer and dragged a woman around the stage, ''was kind of an artistic experiment, and I learned a lot from it. I learned kind of what my limitations are. I learned what my audience wants to see.''

The performance was roundly criticized as too graphic, and scheduled appearances on ''Good Morning America,'' ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'' and other shows were canceled.

But he says his first headlining tour, Glam Nation, which kicked off Thursday at F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre, will be toned down for general audiences.

''I definitely think they'll be comfortable,'' Lambert said. ''The concert definitely is sexy, but I feel like if anybody felt like that was not tasteful, this is tasteful.''

He said the one-hour show will have ''a thematic through-line,'' with a story running through it, and give the audience ''something to look at; giving them a reason why, OK, this is the next song in the set.''

''It's being visually inspired by kind of like a blend of turn-of-the-century New Orleans meets psychedelic classic rock. I had a lot of fun with my projectionist an my costume designer,'' Lambert said. ''It kind of has its own little world.''

In addition to the songs from his debut album, ''For Your Entertainment,'' Lambert says his show will include one or two ''surprise cover'' songs, which he would not reveal.

Lambert said reaction to the AMA performance was skewed because people wrongly believed that's how all his shows would be. But he noted that on ''American Idol,'' where he finished second to Kris Allen in 2009, he changed from week to week.

The AMAs was ''just one performance'' that, because it was the song ''For Your Entertainment,'' was about ''me expressing my sexuality Â… which is scary, but healthy.''

But ''I'm more than one type of artist,'' Lambert said.

''I think that for me, I can't sit and make my decisions and worry about, 'Oh, what if people don't like this?' I feel like that's not art,'' he said. ''I think art is just expressing yourself, and being in the music scene you do have to do it with your audience as well. And so I look to my audience and my fans and the people that I encounter on Twitter and in real life, and I see what they like, and I learned that over the tour last summer -- the American Idols Live tour -- that certain things I did, the audience really reacted to, and so I just kind of stick with that.

''And so, if you are looking for it, look this way,'' he said with a laugh.

Lambert also will play Bethlehem's Musikfest on Aug. 13. Tickets are available at www.musikfest,org or by calling 610-332-3378.

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