Idol Chatter & Voice Views

A year removed from his second-place finish on American Idol, Adam Lambert is about to embark on his first national tour.

And what a tour it promises to be. The Glam Nation Tour, also featuring Orianthi and Adam’s former American Idol colleague Allison Iraheta, kicks off Friday night with a sold-out show at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Shows have also already sold out in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and other venues.

Adam, of course, is touring in support of his debut album, “For Your Entertainment,” which peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and is currently number 72 after 27 weeks on the chart.

He recently released his third single, “If I Had You,” from that album. Single number two, “Whataya Want from Me,” is number 35 on the Hot 100 and climbed as high as number 10.

Earlier this week, Adam took time out from tour rehearsals for a conference call interview with the media.

Also, check out the audio clip below, where he talks more about the theme for the show and the selection of Allison and Orianthi as tour mates.

Question: Can you tell us more about the show itself? The look and how you’re going to approach it that way? And also the repertoire, what else are we going to hear besides the songs from the album?

Adam: There is a surprise cover in there, one or two. But I’m kind of leaving them as wonderful surprises. And then the show itself was actually — it’s being visually inspired by kind of like a blend of turn of the century New Orleans meets like psychedelic classic rock. I had a lot of fun with the projectionist and my costume designer and we’re working with a fashion line called Skin Graft Designs, which I have worn a lot of their pieces in the past on Idol and since then. And, yeah, it kind of has its own little world.

Question: You have a lot of fans that are going to multiple shows and everyone is wondering are you going to mix it up at all and change the set list or do anything different?

Adam: It’s not like a set plan to change things but we have all talked about it, my band and I and the dancers and there are going to be shifts in song selection and what not.

We have a big acoustic section in the middle of the show, which I’m really looking forward to as like a way to kind of just cool down and really connect with the audience. And that section in particular will probably vary from night to night and week to week.

Question: Are people who were up in arms about your AMA performance going to be comfortable at this show? Or should they stay home?

Adam: I definitely think they will be comfortable. That was kind of an artistic experiment, the AMAs, and I learned a lot from it. I learned kind of what my limitations are. I learned what my audience wants to see. And there is definitely — the concert definitely is sexy. But I feel like, if anybody felt that that was not tasteful, this is tasteful.

Question: You’re about to headline your own tour while the season eight winner of Idol is opening on other tours. Did America get it wrong?

Adam: I don’t think anybody is wrong. American Idol was a year ago for both Kris and I, and we’re finding out what works best for us.

Question: How would you classify your image right now, from a fashion and musical perspective?

Adam: I always have been fond of like the glam rocker title. I think glam is a broader term than maybe people realize because I think that there is definitely the ‘70s glam, there was the ‘80s glam movement.

And then right now with the tour, I think I’m exploring a look that is really inspired by psychedelic rock stars, Jimmy Hendrix, Keith Richards, Jim Morrison and then blended with this whole thing called scheme punk is what they call it. And what it is, is it’s like Victorian era fashion mixed with modern elements like punk rock mixed with retro kind of historical clothing. It’s hard to explain but it’s a really, really cool angle.

Question: Second albums have been sort of tricky for a lot of American Idol alumni and I’m curious what you think will keep your music in the spotlight as your career progresses?

Adam: It’s funny. I think that my first album here was completed in three months and I’m really proud of what we were able to accomplish in that amount of time. I think that second album I think is going to be even better because I think that getting a little more time to spend is really kind of lovely, a lovely luxury.

And I think that now I have also been able to be on the road for a year and I’m about to go on this tour and I’ve done a lot of promo. And so I think I have learned more about the business and about myself as an artist and about the audience expectation. I just think I’m going to be more artistically educated this next time around.

Question: Where are you at in terms of a next album? Thinking about it? Have you started writing or song collecting or recording?

Adam: Not really. No. Not yet. I think it’s a little ways off. I think that I’ll probably in the new year after January I’ll probably get to start working on it. And I’ll probably start then. So at this point my focus is really on continuing singles from my current album and this tour, which I’m so excited about.

[windowsmedia]http://w2.yorkdispatch.com/mark/AdamLambert.wmv[/windowsmedia]