RuPaul has arguably penetrated the mainstream more than any other drag queen. Ahead of his return to Australia after almost 15 years, he speaks to Garrett Bithell about New York’s underground scene, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and our fight for equality.
Legendary multi-hyphenate RuPaul Andre Charles was arguably the first ever drag artist to emerge from the upper echelons of the Manhattan underground to penetrate the American zeitgeist when in 1993 he released his debut album, Supermodel of the World. It was especially groundbreaking because America was deep in the throes of grunge, and bands like Nirvana ruled supreme. But here was an African American drag queen from Georgia with a snappy song – ‘Supermodel (You Better Work)’ – and an affirming, love-everyone message.
“That time was amazing,” RuPaul says. “It was a whirlwind. I had been a downtown New York star for many years, and had reached the pinnacle of success in the underground world, and I decided it was time to go for the big time. But I thought I would have to not be in drag.
“Then after months of doing a show – I had a David Bowie, androgynous look – it occurred to me that I needed to change my mind about making the big time in drag. I realised the only blockage to me moving forward was in my own mind, and when I changed my mind, everything else changed.”
Indeed it is this notion of personal responsibility and courage that RuPaul believes is key to the current gay rights movement: how can the GLBT community demand equality when it doesn’t view itself as equal? Obviously there are concrete legal and social impediments to equality, but when a separatist gay scene is still perceived to be necessary, when people are still in the closet, and when gay couples are still reluctant to express affection in public, we have a long way to go.
“You don’t really have to fight for equality, because the fight is inside of you,” he asserts. “If gay people want change, the change happens in your own perception of yourself. If you’re waiting for someone else to give you acceptance, it’s not going work. The biggest changes in the gay community have happened from within each individual.”
Moreover, it’s high time we stopped pandering to traditional heterosexual norms, or apologising for our eccentricities, in our quest for equality. “There’s no disputing that gay people are normal – everything is normal,” RuPaul continues. “But the idea that we have to project this image of the status quo? I just don’t like it.
“You used to go to the gay clubs to find out what was going to be happening in the mainstream five years from now. But today it seems that gay culture is right in line with popular culture, which is kind of sad.”
But RuPaul acknowledges that this is merely a symptom of greater acceptance generally. “Gay people used to have to hide and do a lot of things in secret,” he says. “So things would have time to gestate and develop before the masses got to it.”
When RuPaul moved to New York from Atlanta, Georgia – where he got his start playing in bands at punk rock clubs – in the early 90s, he found his tribe. “It’s different today, but back then everybody mixed in the one club,” he remembers. “Uptown people, downtown people, black, white, gay, straight, Latin, men, women – it was this amazing tapestry of cultures and people, and it was mind-blowing.
“Now it’s very specialised and it’s not as interesting.”
Due to the cult success of television shows RuPaul’s Drag Race, and spin-off RuPaul’s Drag U, RuPaul has taken a break from the nightclub performances that made his career. But, after a two-year hiatus, he is coming to Australia for the first time in almost 15 years – courtesy of Creative Cross in association with Lifestyle You – to reignite his live persona. On Sunday, March 4, RuPaul will headline dance party Glamazon – also the name of his latest album. Held at Metro Theatre in Sydney, Glamazon will feature a high-profile line up including performances by The Margaritas and Wild Spirit Aerialists, and three of Australia’s best DJs – Jimmy Dee, Kitty Glitter and Dan Murphy. Hosted by local drag star Maxi Shield, the night, which also marks the 20th anniversary of ‘Supermodel (You Better Work), will culminate in a spectacular performance by RuPaul, the longest of her Australian tour.
“I’m quite the Aussie-phile,” he says. “I’m surrounded by Australians every day of my life – the man who does my hair, make-up and photographs is Australian, and I was married to an Australian for six years. I’m an Australian by injection!”
Both RuPaul’s Drag Race and RuPaul’s Drag U are still going strong. “I’m happy the shows have helped bring drag back into pop culture,” he muses. “Especially here in America, it had really gone underground. I think people were ashamed of it – in the gay community it had become the step-child nobody wanted to talk about. Especially in gay pride marches, people felt it wasn’t the image of the futuristic gay we should project.
“But drag throughout the ages has reminded us not take ourselves too seriously – that the identity you have can be emulated with just a few materials.”
Since shattering the music industry’s reinforced-glass ceiling in 1992 with the seminal club classic Supermodel (You Better Work), RuPaul has followed his own advice.
The 51-year-old drag pioneer hosts two popular reality TV shows as well as juggling album releases and appearances in much-loved films like To Wong Foo and But I’m A Cheerleader. It is this strong work ethic combined with a rock-solid belief in the power and beauty of drag that finds Ru, as he is affectionately known, at the very top of his game — 30 years into a glittering and groundbreaking career. Early next month the San Diego-born diva will return to Australia for the first time in 13 years to promote the new season premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race on Lifestyle You with a handful of eagerly anticipated club shows and to perform at Mardi Gras — on the same bill as one of his favourite divas, Kylie Minogue.
“Love, love, love my Kyles,” he said in a surprisingly convincing Australian accent.
“I presented an award with her years ago at the Brits. So it’s really lovely to be reunited with her. You know, the Australian national treasure.
“That was in the early ’90s when Elton John and I co-hosted the Brit Awards. They wrote this awful joke where I had a magnifying glass and I said, ‘Are you there, Kylie?’
“I felt terrible afterwards and thought, ‘I hope I haven’t hurt her feelings’.”
As well as catching up with the pop princess, who we’re sure won’t hold a grudge, there are other, more personal reasons for the gay icon’s Australian visit.
“I love the culture,” he explained. “I’ve been with this Australian man [artist Georges LeBar] for the past 18 years. He’s from Perth and we’re going to Perth to see his family.
“It’s my family, my adopted culture. I just love it. I love the humour. I love the irreverence and the cheekiness.”
RuPaul then unexpectedly opened up about his romance with LeBar, discussing their open relationship and why it works so well for them.
“As you get older you realise that relationships never end but the form they take on changes,” he said.
“Over the 18 years, the form of our relationship has changed but it hasn’t changed how I feel about him and how, I know, he thinks of me. We are soulmates. If he feels the need to be with someone, then right on. I know that’s not going to change how he feels about me.
“Most people don’t talk about this. Nobody talks about the issue of sex, actually transcending that sexual thing. Nobody talks about it but I know one thing is for sure, no one has ever loved me more on this planet than him and I can tell you this, I’ve never loved anyone more than I’ve loved Georges.”
Clearly warming up to the topic, the quadruple threat (singer/dancer/actor/TV host) turned his attention to more traditional relationships.
“Monogamy really is against human nature,” Ru declared. “It’s a hoax. It’s all based on how fragile someone’s ego is. If you choose to have your bits and pieces exclusive to one person, right on!
“But the human spirit doesn’t abide by that law. The human spirit goes where it wants to go.
“I’m not a slut or anything. If you love someone, you want them to have all this life has to offer … what I’m saying is actually the truth. This is where we, as humans, really need to be.”
After an unexpected detour through his personal life, the proud creator of Drag Race talked enthusiastically about the soon-to-be-aired new season of the popular reality series.
“Oh my god, that’s a great season,” he cheekily boasted. “I’m so happy for you guys because we elevated the show to absolutely amazing heights, really celebrating the art of drag and why it’s so important to our culture and to human beings.
“It’s just so interesting to watch and the kids are hungry and they’re talented and funny. I’m so proud of the show and I gotta tell you, the thing I’m the most proud of is, we get to really unleash these fabulous creatures, these beautiful creatures onto the world.
“It’s so exciting. I’ve been doing this work for 30 years and you know, except for a few people here and there, I’ve been basically alone in this field. So to have 50 girls who have come through our show [is] super exciting.”
While the talent pool might have expanded, RuPaul will show why he still towers over the competition — literally and figuratively — when he takes his club show around Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
“It’s gonna be songs from the last two albums but obviously Supermodel and something from my Red Hot album but there’s so much really lovely stuff from the last two albums that I don’t know how much of the older stuff I’m gonna do,” he revealed when asked what we can expect from his live performances.
We concluded our chat by discussing the chances of another drag performer making the leap from community-level success to the mainstream.
“I think that it is possible,” Ru said hopefully. “I think there are certain windows in our culture, in our time where these things can happen.
“In America, in the ’70s, there was a window of time where people who danced to the beat of a different drum sort of slipped through.
“I slipped through in ’92 when politically, Bill Clinton got into office and then I re-emerged during the Obama administration.
“I think those windows come every once in a while and they’re rare. Someone has to be prepared for it. I think it can happen.”
His voice shifted to a more contemplative tone.
“I’m amazed by how our culture feels comfortable in fear and in closed-down-ness. Even gay people. In my lifetime, I’ve seen the gay movement sort of close and regress. It’s a weird study in human behaviour.
“Why do we feel so comfortable with fear instead of openness and love?”
INFO: Catch RuPaul live at Mardi Gras on March 3. Season 3 of Drag Race premieres on You on February 27, 10.30pm. Club dates info at www.rupaulshouseoflove.com
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- RuPaul is the queen of all drag queens, but many of his fans might not know that that he has a king in his court – someone he calls his “partner for life.”
Ru stopped by Access Hollywood recently and chatted with Kit Hoover about the loves of his life, which include “Judge Judy,” burnt toast, a special someone named Jimmy and an unidentified partner.
“I have a stuffed donkey named Jimmy that I have slept with every night for the past 26 years,” the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” host and singer told Kit.
The 51-year-old star might have spent many quality years with Jimmy the donkey, but when it comes to really capturing Ru’s heart, that honor goes to a man with a bit of cowboy in him.
“There’s a man… we were committed for many years. We split up, but we’ve never really quite split up,” he explained. “He is the love of my life. He has a ranch in Wyoming.”
Ru said his idea of what exactly a relationship is has evolved over the years.
“As you get older, you realize that sort of the form that relationships take on, ones you grew up with, you grow out of that. You become more relaxed,” he continued. “He is my partner for life, but if I need to have burnt toast with another gentleman other than Jimmy and Judge Judy, then so be it.”
The star, who is not exactly known for his low-key ways, said he enjoys escaping to his partner’s ranch and kicking off his heels and tossing aside the wigs.
“It’s very quiet [there.] I get to read a lot, I watch a lot of movies. I don’t do any of the hard labor or anything like that,” he said with a laugh.
With a hit Logo series in its fourth season, Ru has not been able to do one of his favorite things, but that’s all about to change this spring.
“I’m going to be going to Australia in March and kicking off this tour… I’m excited, because the live connection with the audience and being able to look into their eyes and look back at their cell phones looking at me, going, ‘You’re going to be on YouTube in five minutes!’” he told Kit.
And despite the evolving music industry and its many financial challenges, Ru will continue to “work it” for years to come.
“There’s not a lot of money to be made in music right now. It’s very tough because everybody just downloads it for free,” he explained. “It’s my passion and I love it. I’ll continue to do it forever!”
Catch “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Mondays a 9 PM on Logo.
I spent (roughly) the last week of 2011 with RuPaul at his place in the "Birds" section of the Hollywood Hills. He was a generous host, and not just with his time (he was inclined to pay for everything, and also gracious and unwilling to engage in one of those considerate play fights when I wouldn't allow him to). As a result, I wrote a profile for work, "The Tao of Ru." Of course, there were several things that couldn't make it into the article and so below is a brief list of outtakes...
- A gaunt man in his 30s with stringy hair down to his shoulders, a beard, a white robe and sandals (Jesus drag, if you will) chased Ru down on Melrose. After pictures were snapped, he told Ru, "Keep up the good work," which is a divine compliment coming from Jesus, I think.
- His voice mail is a brief snippet of wordless vocalizing from an acapella of Whitney Houston's "So Emotional."
- The conversation I had while there about the transient "E" in Dionne Warwick(e)'s name was the gayest conversation I've ever had that didn't touch on actual homosexuality.
- He sometimes drives a 1979 Cherry red Volvo that once belonged to his mother. He has since tricked it out with a crazy sound system.
- His favorite food "might be" toast.
- We had bread pudding for dinner on more than one occasion.
- There was so much activity (out and about during the day, small get-togethers at night) that by Day 3, I wondered if I'd ever get to sit down with him and get his words on tape (I did, though, obviously).
- One morning, Ru came in while I was waking myself up with coffee at his kitchen counter (Ru wakes up at, like, 3 am). He blasted the original version of Mariah Carey's "Heartbreaker" and danced until it was over.
- In addition to, "Honey badger don't give a shit," one of Ru's go-to refrains was, "You better sissy that walk, girl!" -- the first line of my piece about judging a beauty pageant (I had told him that was my No. 1 takeaway when recounting my experience one night). If it makes it onto an episode of Drag Race, not only will I die happy, but so will the entire concept of pageantry.
- "Sasquatch" was our code word he decided we'd say if we spotted any celebrities on our hike to and around the Hollywood sign. It would turn out that Ru was the only openly mythical creature on that path that day, though.
- One night we went to IHOP and Ru got a patty melt and a black and white milkshake.
- Among the other porno puns on pop culture titles that kept Ru in stitches: The Cunt for Red October, Mary Poopins and The Prince of Turds.
- An incomplete list of songs we listened to in his car driving around that week: Boy Meets Girl's "Waiting for a Star to Fall," The Pussycat Dolls' "Whatcha Think About That," Dusty Springfield's "In Private," Paula Abdul's "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow (Soul Seekerz Club Mix)," Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On (MPG Groove)," Prince & the NPG's "Diamonds and Pearls," Michael Jackson's "Why You Wanna Trip On Me," Whitney Houston's "I'm Your Baby Tonight (Extended Remix)," Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation" and "You Want This," Aretha Franklin's "Jump to It," Tanya Tucker's "We Don't Have To Do This," Luther Vandross' "I'd Rather," Madonna's "Who's That Girl," and SO MUCH Bee Gees, especially their work for other artists like Kenny Rogers and Barbra Streisand."
- And finally, some unused quotes:
"This path [of drag] was the path I was supposed to take. No accident. My mom named me RuPaul. My facial features allow me to do that with them. My father loved the girls. He didn't have a lot of interest in what I was doing, so I always wanted to get Daddy's attention, so I decided, 'I'll be the prettiest of all the girls,' which I of course I am!"
"The drag part is what I do for work. When I got famous for drag, that's when it started feeling like work. I had fun with it before I got famous. There was this certain power of getting into drag, dropping a Quaalude and just walking around the Village."
On the thousands of dollars it costs for him to get into drag: "There's a certain look I've come to be known for. If I'm going to do it right, Matthew Anderson will do my makeup and hair, Zaldi's going to custom make an outfit for me, Joelle, who's worked with me since '96, is going to be there to facilitate and there's going to be a car service. It's a big production. It's not like I'm 16 and can throw on some lip gloss and a pair of coochie cutters."
"It always felt like I couldn't do enough drugs. I felt like I was on an operating table, like, 'Hello! I'm still awake!' I knew I needed something other than drugs to deflect the feelings that didn't feel good, or pain. And that came in the form of consciousness. Of adding another element to the scenario. If there was pain, if there was too much feeling, I had to add another element. And that wasn't a superficial element like drugs. It had to be a consciousness of who I am. I am not the pain. When I meditate, I say, 'I am not my feelings. I am the awareness of my feelings.' Immediately, there is a separation. Immediately, I can observe it and at that moment, I have a choice."
On his boyfriend, Georges LeBar: "I would love to be with him more. I miss him. We fit well together and I never get sick of him. I don't know how that happened, I get sick of most people. We lived together many, many years. It changes. I think it's just maturity. I've been alone most of my life. I take it for granted that's just the way things are."
On his upcoming tour that will inevitably be captured via cell phone video: "[Cameras] don't allow me to be really uninhibited and have a good time. I have to think about, 'Oh, this shit's gonna end up on YouTube.' It's crazy. Like the Michael Richards thing. He was in a fuckin' comedy club. If people heard some of the things I say in the right setting... I say everything, because it's all bullshit. People take things too fucking seriously. If you get offended by bullshit, what you're offended by is the least of your problems."
RuPaul has been on public display since the early 1990s, but rarely as literally as he was one late December night at the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, Calif. There, he strapped on some roller skates and spent about an hour gliding around a rink that looked more like a VFW, replete with tinsel, red-shag walls and stenciled stars. Despite his considerable height (6-feet-4 on wheels) and fashion sense (green jeans, orange sweater), skating to Whitney Houston and Pink, he almost blended in. When the DJ broke from mass-pop and spun Ru's own song, “Jealous of My Boogie” (2009), he skated on, straight-faced, simultaneously of the people and floating above them.
Duality is there for any celebrity amongst civilians, but RuPaul — born RuPaul Andre Charles in San Diego, 1960 — has made a career out of it. As the most famous drag queen of all time, his public persona is inherently two in one: a man dressed as a woman, and a man dressed as a man. Both are present on “Drag Race,” which started its fourth season Monday on Logo. He advises the contestants in male drag and judges them in female. RuPaul can be all sorts of things at any given moment — man, woman, singer, actor, host, author, speaker, icon — but he’s the flashiest culture critic working today.
“Even my celebrity is a critique on celebrity. It’s a wink-wink,” he said. “I realize in studying our society and culture that it’s hypocritical and not really real. I think that has always been the role of a drag queen: To remind the culture that it is not to be taken seriously and that you are not who you think you are, per the description on your driver’s license.”
Nor are you necessarily who the public thinks you are: An occasional smoky eye is about as close as RuPaul gets to drag in the absence of cameras. I spent a week at Ru’s house in the Hollywood Hills that he recently purchased and is not quite moved into yet. He’d invited me as a friend: He’d read my blog years ago, then I interviewed him several times for VH1. We share a fanaticism for entertainment. This trip was a blur of references to the Honey Badger, Rihanna’s appeal, the state of Whitney Houston’s career and Mariah Carey’s Jenny Craig commercial.
RuPaul engages his surroundings, too, putting himself in the middle of communal activities (country line dancing in Studio City; dollar-stuffing in Hollywood), or soliciting conversations with friendly strangers. A barista’s giraffe pendant led to a discussion on the temperament of the beast.
“I like to play! I like playmates!” he said. “I’m actually auditioning people to see how far I can go. What’s that Cam’ron song? ‘You smoke? [I smoke]’? That’s what I’m doing, I’m doing a volley.”
Gathered for this particular summit were some as-seen-on-TV types, such as the non-Downtown Julie Brown, but it was mostly civilians like a 21-year-old named Ian, who works at a movie theater, and Brett, a 44-year-old speech pathologist whose mix CD Brett made for a mutual friend and Ru enjoyed.
Virtually every night featured some sort of game, from Guess the Celebrity to Taboo to Password. Ru’s favorite is charades. One night, we played a game using prefabricated cards, then ate a sprawling dinner (cooked by Ru’s boyfriend, artist Georges LeBar), then played impromptu charades using pop-culture titles debased by profane puns. Ru took such joy in them, particularly one of the few printable ones, “My Big Scat Greek Wedding.” Once we ran through all of those clues, we went back to the prefab deck and played hours more.
“That is my intimacy with people,” he explained later. “I get to go, ‘OK, let’s go. What do you got? Who are you? What are you working with?’ ”
That’s not double entendre. RuPaul said he is sexually shy (“I’ve never been to a bathhouse. I’ve never cruised online.”). He met LeBar in January 1994, and they lived together for six years. They don’t anymore, as LeBar tends a ranch in Wyoming. They see each other periodically (two out of the three times I hung out with Ru in Los Angeles last year, LeBar was there) and Ru said they are “beyond a couple.”
A crucial element to Ru’s entertaining is that it is devoid of drugs and alcohol. He gave up the latter and various chemicals in 1991, ahead of recording the demo that would lead to his record deal with Tommy Boy. He didn’t fully quit the former until August 1999, a year after moving to L.A. from New York. That is when RuPaul, who had been getting high since 10, kicked marijuana and got sober.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re addicted to Telemundo or counting the number of cars that go by, addiction has to do with a separation from the source — the source being who you really are,” he said on pot dependency.
Like many recovering addicts, Ru is intensely spiritual. While hiking around the Hollywood sign, he told me about his beliefs: a mix of “Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jesus,” and then some. Ru believes that we are “spiritual beings having a human experience,” and uses variations of, “I am not my feelings; I am the awareness of my feelings,” regularly in conversation, later comparing the sense to “The Matrix.” Those words are also his mantra when he meditates.
“We are a consciousness. Say that the consciousness we are is, for lack of a better word, God. This big blob that can’t be defined by our limited language. You are that pretending to be this body and you wanted to feel what it was like to be human. You have to have polar opposites. Black, white, good, bad, male, female. In here is where we decide what we are. You can align yourself with the consciousness that you are that thing, that blob of God or whatever, and look at yourself from a different perspective.”
He explained this philosophy in a living room with a panoramic view of Los Angeles that is so vast, you can see the Pacific Ocean. We were so high up, not even the fireworks that flew over various parts of the city on New Year’s Eve looked impressive, just feisty little color splashes above a sea of lights. His neighbors include Halle Berry, Tyler Perry and Robin Thicke, whom Ru said he heard (and smelled) in a marijuana-fueled ramble, proclaiming that he is this generation’s Michael McDonald and that his wife, Paula Patton, is this generation’s Halle Berry.
It’s a striking observation booth. RuPaul watches and comments, even on himself. We sat down for a screening of the season premiere of “Drag Race,” a drag-queen reality show competition fueled by his signature signifying (it’s “Project Runway” plus “America’s Next Top Model” plus lip-synching plus tucking). This was Ru’s third time seeing the episode. “I just love watching …” he started, and I interrupted with, “… yourself” — a play on his relative lack of narissism (he’s more likely to interview you than talk about himself). “No, how they put it together!” he said, cackling.
He explained that some of the lines he laughed at (“Hoarding is the new black”) were piped in through an earpiece from Tom Campbell, the head of development at World of Wonder, which produces “Drag Race.” But plenty of what he says on the show is of his mind.
“Everything is fake,” he said. “Once you’ve seen ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ you have all you need to know about this world: What you think and what is are completely separate. But what you think is also real because you’ve made it real! I delivered the line. Celine Dion doesn’t write the songs, but they’re hers.”
If anyone wears the “everything is fake” maxim on his uniform sleeve, certainly it is the drag queen. It’s striking how much RuPaul’s worldview falls in line with his career, so I asked if he came to drag holding these beliefs, or if his job prompted them.
“I had to dissociate to be able to realize who I really am,” he said, erring more to the latter. “Because I’m not this body. I’ve had a great time with this body. It’s fabulous, it’s beautiful, and everybody’s is beautiful. I want to drive the bad-ass car around the block. I want to see what it can do. Take it out on the highway, the Autobahn. That’s the goal. It would be a shame to own a big, beautiful gorgeous car and not use all the things it can do.”
On Sunday, March 4, RuPaul will headline dance party Glamazon – also the name of his latest album. Held at Metro Theatre in Sydney, Glamazon will feature a high-profile line up including performances by The Margaritas and Wild Spirit Aerialists, and three of Australia’s best DJs – Jimmy Dee, Kitty Glitter and Dan Murphy. Hosted by local drag star Maxi Shield, the night, which also marks the 20th anniversary of ‘Supermodel (You Better Work), will culminate in a spectacular performance by RuPaul, the longest of her Australian tour.
