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In the new issue of Rolling Stone, Adam Lambert comes clean about his sexual orientation and his future in music. The interview, “Wild Idol: The Psychedelic Transformation and Sexual Liberation of Adam Lambert,” is now available on newsstands. Here are a few excerpts:

• “I realized that I wouldn’t be taken seriously as a recording artist unless I had a huge platform. I saw that and I knew that Idol was the only thing that would do it—if it worked.”

• “[Kris Allen] has a good heart and a good spirit. He’s so mellow, he’s so kick-back….Kris doesn’t need any advice, clearly…He’s got a very strong sense of self in a non-aggressive, non-intense way.”

• “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.”

• “There’s the old industry idea that you should just make sexuality a non-issue, just say your private life’s your private life, and not talk about it. But that’s bullshit, because private lives don’t exist anymore for celebrities: they just don’t. I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder all the time, thinking I have to hide, being scared of being found out, putting on a front, having a beard, going down the red carpet with some chick who is posing as my girlfriend. That’s not cool, that’s not being a rock star. I can’t do that.”