I remember being obsessed with Christina Aguilera's 'Stripped.' That was her peak, and she is such an amazing singer. Plus, I was a little gay boy, and the music video for 'Beautiful' existed, so obviously I was affected.
I love John Denver. Townes Van Zandt is one of my all-time favorites.
June Carter Cash is probably my all-time favorite member of the Carter Family.
I've lost 'Drag Race' twice. I know how, with one bad day, it could just end.
I never check my bank account. I know that sounds crazy. But I don't know how much is in there. I never know how much is in there. I have an idea - I have a bottom line - but I never look because I always make believe there's never anything in there.
I always tell my mom that if she would have just bought me a Barbie when I was little, I would have gone into real estate.
Me myself, Brian, I'm a Midwesterner at heart, and I have this deep, bone-dry sense of humor, and I've found it worked to combine this Barbie with a dry, sarcastic man.
Drag queens always base their personas on their favorite female icons. Mine was Barbie, who's not necessarily a human but is as iconic and beautiful as any woman. I started really pushing it because I hit a crossroads of, 'I don't want to look like a woman or a man. I want to look like a wind-up toy, a plaything manufactured in a factory.'
To me, drag is about doing whatever you want, and nobody says anything. And 'Drag Race' is about doing what you're told and having it evaluated. I hate being judged.
With Trixie specifically, on the one hand, it's a celebration of femininity. It's that moment when you're playing Pretty Pretty Princess, and there's also, this is what society says a girl looks like, the amount of makeup I wear and the humongous blond wigs.
I remember seeing RuPaul in 'The Brady Bunch Movie,' when she says to Jan, 'Girl, you better work.' And I froze it in my mind forever.
RuPaul might not broadcast herself as political, but I think she tries to make moves in American history by catching more flies with honey than vinegar. Rather than telling people to vote, maybe she'll do a mini-challenge on voting. She understands that you can influence people in a good way without preaching.
I don't dress up as a woman: I dress up as a caricature of a caricature of a woman.
Drag is great way to get people to pay attention to me, but it's a difficult way to get people to take me seriously as a musician. So it's a weird Catch-22. It's like a gimmick that gets them to pay attention, but when they see my image, they're like, 'There's no way this is going to have any legitimacy to it.'
I think the perception of audiences that love folk and country is they're perceived to be more closed-minded than they really are.
That's something I like about drag - I get to do everything. Collaborative arts are hard for me because I don't really like to relinquish control.
I lived deep in the country in northern Wisconsin. I didn't have any neighbors or anything, so in the summers, I played guitar for hours and hours every day until I was about 18. I never thought about combining it with drag, 'cause to me, well, drag queens don't play guitar. Now I'm like, 'You idiot, that's an opportunity.'
Out of drag, I'm a white guy with a guitar, which isn't special. There are a million white guys with guitars. But being a drag queen with a guitar is a lot more commanding.
In the real world, people go against my beliefs all the time, and I don't make it my place to - like, I'm not super confrontational.
I hate drag. It's extremely uncomfortable. It's awful. I'm in a full corset and pads and giant wigs.
