The All Stars winner gave us an exclusive interview - featuring a hilarious cameo from Sharon Needles.
Photo: DerekPlease.com
Few Ru girls have the sort of long, illustrious career Chad Michaels has worked for. From being a resident performer in Las Vegas, to winning the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, Michaels has always managed to stay on top - all the while remaining a humble and gracious queen. It was an honor to meet her twice on Friday Preview Night at RuPaul's DragCon, and see her as a panelist on the Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Presents: Seeing Stars: Cher and Madonna and Britney and Tina... Oh My! panel. This interview took place at her DragCon booth, the second time we met her.
Derek: Hey, we met earlier over there, at the [Dream Girls Revue booth].
Chad Michaels: (remembering) Yeah, yeah! Totally.
Derek: I was wondering, what does DragCon mean to you?
Chad: To me it's all about the fans, I mean, this is our one time of year to really get out and meet like the people who don’t get to come to the shows, necessarily. There’s a younger set, there's the kids, and then there's the people who just don’t go to drag shows.
Sharon Needles walks by and snorts loudly into the microphone.
Chad: Look who that is.
Derek: It’s an icon!
Chad: It is an icon.
Sharon: Icon (points to Chad), retard (gestures to self). Icon (points to Chad), retard (gestures to self).
Sharon continues to her own booth for a meet and greet session.
Chad: It’s my friend Sharon Needles. So yeah, it’s all about the fans and just, know you, getting to connect and see everybody. Give a little back to everybody that supported us.
Derek: Yeah, and you're obviously an icon yourself.
Chad: Thank you.
Derek: From Cher’s last album, Closer to the Truth, what was your favorite track?
iPhone photo
Chad: I loved “Woman’s World.” I think that was really my favorite. I just like the... I like a dance song. I like an upbeat song. I rarely perform a ballad, so anything that is mid-tempo to upbeat from Cher, I’m down. That's what really gets an audience excited. There’s always an appropriate time for a Cher ballad, but when I’m working in the club and I only got a 3-4 minute set, I want to hit the audience and bring them up. So for me it was “Woman’s World," you know? Yeah.
Derek: What are you looking forward to the most this weekend?
Chad: Let's see... this weekend I’m looking forward to the Mamma Mia! trivia that I’m doing tomorrow. So I’m collaborating a little bit with Mamma Mia!, which is very much an honor for me. So we're doing a little bit of trivia tomorrow at 11:15am. It's emoji trivia. So you're going to have to name the ABBA song using the three emojis provided. So that's what we're doing. And that's a fun thing for me! You know?
Derek: Awesome! Yeah.
Chad: It's awesome!
Derek: Well, thank you so much for doing an interview.
Chad: You're welcome! Alright, I'm off. Be well, you guys, and have a good time.
Derek: Have a good time at your party you're doing tonight!
Chad: Thank you.
Special thank you to RuPaul's DragCon and World of Wonder for giving us the opportunity to cover their Los Angeles 2018 convention. Buy tickets to RuPaul's DragCon NYC 2018 here.
What's your favorite Cher song? Tell me! @DerekPlease on all social platforms.