I guess drag queens, by nature, have to do everything. When you start being a drag queen, you're grabbing the microphone, hosting the shows. Then, you're setting the microphone down and doing the number. You're spending the day before doing your wigs and sewing your costumes. You're doing everything.
I used to make everything myself. I used to do my own hair, make my own costumes, write my own jokes, and write my own songs. There were definitely some days where I had to choose between having tights that didn't have holes in them or having to buy makeup or something I needed for a show.
My grandpa was a country singer, and I started learning guitar from him, just at the kitchen table when I was younger, and I got really into it.
As a kid, I wasn't allowed to have girl toys, but I would take my cousin's My Little Pony and smell it. That weird, synthetic, fruity-sweet smell - that's how I wanted to look. I wanted to look like this fabricated toy. I wanted to look like you could pull a string on my back, and I would say, like, six catchphrases.
I don't expect a lot of people who love drag to also be like, 'I love 'Drag Race,' and then I got to hear my Chris Stapleton album.' Not necessarily an obvious crossover.
People don't realize 'Drag Race' is a certain percent competition, but it's also a game show. There's a certain amount of throwing dice and spinning wheels, and there are twists and turns all the time. Part of it is also having the right idea and pulling the right look together that day. We're all making choices in the moment.
With Trixie, people like that I look like this fabricated painted creation, but all my comedy and my songs come from a place of reality. It's like the man behind the curtain - it's the crying clown - that's what works for people with Trixie. It's the dichotomy of someone looking like a toy but then, you know, speaking and singing like a real boy.
When you unbox a My Little Pony or a Strawberry Shortcake doll, you were hit with a sweet, impossibly perfect fragrance of fresh, machine-made plastic oftentimes infused with floral and fruity notes to bring the toy to life. That third dimension of sensory experience made the toy so real to me.
Any time there is an economic downturn or political strife, lipstick sales skyrocket. If you have a hard day, it's this $14 thing that lifts your day. I think drag has that same lipstick effect.
I don't really like club music or hip hop or electronic music at all. I'm like an old person.
I always say that drag queens are like an exaggeration of women, and I'm like an exaggeration of drag queens. People ask, 'Why do you do your makeup so differently?' and I always say, 'Well, in a subversive art form, ask yourself why so many drag queens do their makeup exactly the same.' If you can do anything, why does everybody do the same thing?
Mental health and sobriety is not a straight line, and 'Drag Race' is a family, and we support our family members through anything.
I grew up playing guitar and writing music, and I always wanted to be a songwriter and a singer and play the guitar. But while I was finishing college, my drag became lucrative, so I had to pursue what was going to pay the bills - and doing comedy as Trixie was something that I was able to market.
I didn't start drag because I thought it would be a ticket to anything. I did it for my own narcissistic fulfilment. When I started selling records, going on tour, doing TV... I never expected any of it.
I think being young and, like, 14, 15, you feel like a weirdo, and playing guitar with my grandpa in my grandma's kitchen is probably my fondest memories I'll ever have.
People on a daily basis walk up to me, panic, and tell me something extremely graphic and violent about their life.
'Drag Race' doesn't claim to represent drag as a whole. 'Drag Race' is a reality show. If you see real drag shows, we just do drag and respect each other's art and who your real identity is - name, gender, hair color, anything.
People are slowly realizing that they're looking at drag all the time. 'Mrs. Doubtfire.' 'Real Housewives.' Peewee Herman. Don't let calling it drag make you uncomfortable.
I'm most proud of my career as a touring comedian and musician. I love doing television, I love selling records, but when I'm at these venues with hundreds of people, and they're all sitting listening to my music and my jokes, I feel like I could die that day, and I would be happy.
I looooove Jason Isbell.
