Sam Smith seems to regret a couple of things in his life. But neither of them has to do with his sexuality. Or his singing.
It's the tattoos. The ones on his biceps that say "Alone" and "Honesty."
“They’re dramatic — I don’t know why I got them,” the 25-year-old singer said in a new interview with London's Sunday Times, reportedly rolling his eyes a tad as he continued. “I look back on them now and I cringe. But I have to respect what I was feeling in the moment, you know?”
So maybe regret is too strong a word? However, two other tattoos give a hint about Smith's sense of self. On each hand, he has inked the Venus symbol — the gender sign for female. And he knows how to rock that.
“I love a heel. I’ve got loads of heels at home,” says the singer, who was “obsessed” with Marilyn Manson and Boy George when he was 17. For 2½ years when he was in school, full makeup and “huge fur coats” were his style. No “male” clothing. No biggie, except he was the only gay person in his village. He got teased a lot, he said, but also had people who respected his style choice.
He particularly loves one drag shop in Sydney, Australia, which he frequents when he's on tour Down Under. “Oh my God, I just buy everything — heels, dresses. We have a great time.”
But Smith isn’t quick to label himself, even as more specific terms about gender identity are knocking on the mainstream door. “I don’t know what the title would be,” he said, “but I feel just as much woman as I am man.”
But let's back up a bit. In February 2015, when Smith was about to win a Grammy for best new artist, he told the Los Angeles Times that at that moment, all the talk about his sexuality was something he was dealing with more than ever.
“The fact that it's still a headline makes me feel uncomfortable. There aren’t headlines talking about how Lorde is straight or how Beyoncé is straight,” Smith said. “I look at it from a very equal perspective. I want them to talk about my music. I want them to talk about my singing.”
But the singer — who hopes one day to have a Las Vegas residency like Elton John has had — has shifted his mind set a bit since that interview.
“I remember, at the beginning of my career, being called a ‘gay singer,’ and I didn’t want that," he told London's Sunday Times. “I wanted to be seen as a singer first, before people spoke about my private life. And now it’s changed — I’ve changed. I realize that maybe I don’t mind that title.”
Source: latimes
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