14 DAY TRIAL // Adam Lambert is known for the in your face-type of attitude he has, all part of his glitzy, rock ‘n’ roll onstage persona, as he said so himself on numerous occasions. What lies behind this image is not the utmost confidence, as some might be tempted to believe, but rather the need for validation for past body image issues that did not fail to leave a scar, the singer reveals in an interview with Morning Jolt’s Larry Flick on Sirius radio.
Some fans might not know this, but Adam used to be fat, as he puts during the interview you will find embedded below. Being overweight and certainly different in many respects from everybody else inevitably led to confidence issues that were still pretty obvious in his early 20s, the American Idol runner-up explains. This is why he now feels to “flaunt” what he’s got, he adds.
“I suffered from a little bit of an ugly duckling complex in my early twenties. When I was in high school I was 250 pounds and that creates some stuff... some body image stuff, some confidence issues and I got a lot of my confidence from the validation I got as a performer,” Lambert says in the interview when asked about what he sees in the mirror at night, after he removes all his makeup and strips the many layers that make Adam Lambert the entertainer.
As psychologist Cooper Lawrence, who is also the author of “The Cult of Celebrity,” says for PopEater, in this light, Lambert’s American Music Awards performance, the one that got critics and some fans upset over his onstage “antics,” was just the place to vent and affirm his new-found confidence. If Lambert was once fat and was (perhaps) bullied because of this or had feelings of marginalization, the AMAs show was his giving the finger to past unpleasantness.
“It’s common for kids who were made fun of for their weight to act out in that way. When you are developing your identity during those important years your self image and physical appearance are who you are. Until you develop a life, a resume and a sense of who you are inside and you are criticized for weight it can have a long lasting impact. The AMAs were the perfect ‘look at me now’ moment. He not only looks amazing but he is so comfortable with who he is and it shows,” Lawrence says.