Bohemian Rhapsody has reignited a global fire in Queen and Freddie Mercury fans and cast a fresh spotlight on the band’s incredible new frontman. As they prepare a major new stadium tour, US television giant ABC screened an in-depth documentary, The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story. As well as interviews with the stars themselves, you can see extraordinary early pictures and videos of Lambert as a child in the article below. But, despite displaying such early talent, the showman also confessed how he was “ashamed”.
Adam’s mother Leila Lambert says: “When Adam was younger he didn’t quite fit in. He didn’t like sports. He would do a lot of acting out, fantasy things and he would ask me to film him and take pictures while he was dancing or singing. We thought there’s got to be another outlet.”
Adam says: “They put me in a theatre group that rehearsed at weekends. It was a big children’s theatre and I remember the first Saturday I went, I was like, ‘I’ve found my people.’”
“We ended up taking him for voice lessons and he got up on stage one day and sang and we had absolutely no idea he had that voice. It was in Fiddler on the Roof.”
As well as some incredible photographs and footage of Lambert as a boy on stage, the clip below also lets Adam open up about his struggles.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY MADE MILLIONS FOR QUEEN AND FREDDIE’S ‘LOVE OF MY LIFE’ MARY AUSTIN
The documentary includes footage of Adam aged 11 talking about performing, as well as the budding superstar in action in shows as he started to realise how his life could change.
He says: “I think in my teenage years it started becoming clear I was getting attention for it, which I love.
“As a strange kid who was kind of ashamed of his body and in the closet and a whole list of other insecurities and having something I was good at and got me a lot of attention became medicine for me in a way.”
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In fact, even before he found fame on American Idol, Adam had already worked in musicals and starred alongside Val Kilmer in the short-lived The Ten Commandments.
It may have been the reason why Simon Cowell had reservations after Adam’s incredible first audition when he branded the hopeful “theatrical.”
Cowell, of course, spotted what would actually become Lambert’s defining strength as he forged a solo career and then stepped into the shoes of one of the greatest and most ‘theatrical’ music icons of all time.
Freddie would have been proud…