I think I trust myself more. Early on, I had a fair dose of impostor syndrome when it came to the celebrity thing. Coming off of ‘Idol,’ I was like, ‘Yes, this is a dream that I’ve had.
Yes, this is amazing. Oh my God, this is so cool. What am I doing here?’[Being labeled theatrical] It was like a euphemism [for being gay].
I was like, ‘And?’ Because up until that point, it was commonly thought in the industry that it would work against you. I was part of a wave of people that were proving that wrong.But respect is a funny thing, especially in the music space, because I’ve always gotten respect for my talent.
But talent isn’t really all it’s about, to be respected in that space. It’s about numbers. You can work really hard and make a whole album, and it’s only valued at the rate of how many people have heard it.