I just sat down with Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. While we chatted about many things, I could not help but first ask them about Michael Jackson.
In fact, on Monday, Fox will reair this year's Jackson-themed performance night, when Allen sang "Remember the Time," and Lambert belted out "Black or White."
The first album Allen ever owned was Jackson's Dangerous from 1991…
"He was the most influential musical person that I had in my life," Allen said. "On the artist side of things, everything that he did was just so right."
He continued, "Every album that he did, it hit you in a way that just made you feel good. It made you feel him and feel his music. He was a genius, a complete genius."
Lambert remembered listening to 1982's Thriller.
"His voice was just one of a kind," he said. "No one else sounds like him. Furthermore, the visual stuff he brought to the table was so groundbreaking and edgy and ahead of its time, in a way. There wasn't anyone else really going out there like that."
Lambert added that the King of Pop broke barriers. "He defied sexuality and race in a way that no one else has," he said. "He wasn't openly masculine or feminine. He was kind of somewhere in the middle in this androgynous space and at some point he was like, 'Black or white, it doesn't matter.' There were a lot of things he straddled the line of, and I think that was really cool."
Make sure to come here later on for more from Allen and Lambert. In the meantime, check out what Mr. Lambert told them over at Watch With Kristin about New Moon, Glee and the upcoming AI tour.
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