Author: Deborah Nelson
Meeting Adore Delano is like meeting Adore Delano. She is as real as they come. No fake persona, no put on voice. Any slang or catchphrases she used on Drag Race she uses in real life. She swears. She says ‘Like’ a lot. The only thing she didn’t say at our meeting was ‘Party.’ It was more “Yawn” as she fought to muster energy for one last performance on a very grueling day. ‘Girl, yawning is like blinking for me these days,’ she said.
In person Adore seems older, and I clocked this. “I feel older,” she said. She’s just a little more still, a little more savvy and a lot more confident than she appeared on Drag Race. Perhaps its down to the schedule, or company she keeps on tour.
On the show Adore would often remark how punk she was but a lot of viewers – and perhaps other contestants – may not have taken her seriously. This is something she addressed last fall, out of drag as her boy persona Danny Noriega, in the YouTube Video ‘Dear Mr. Punk Rocker.’ In the video Adore/Danny addresses homophobes and other haters with an epic read: “It’s like I can’t be a drag queen and know my fucking punk culture history? Why am I even feeling like I have to prove myself to you? Sorry to break it to you, but Avril Lavigne and Good Charlotte were not punk music. Back when you were worshiping them, I was in fucking mosh pits breaking my acrylic nails on bitches asses.”
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Adore elaborated to Dragaholic on her punk rock gender-bending upbringing:
“From middle school I just completely connected with all of the gutter punk kids. I remember bringing them food. My mom would cook them a bunch of food. A lot of my friends were homeless.
“I had a punk rock band when I was in high school – ‘Teenage Rampage.’ We got the name from the band X. It was an all girl band and I was the singer. Everyone thought I was a girl back then. I lived my life as a girl from 14 to almost 17 years old. I was basically a trans Brody Dalle going to high school, with the piercings and everything.” Dalle was the singer from the L.A. based punk band, The Distillers’ (pictured above).
Adore, as her boy alter-ego Danny Noriega, discusses her band in a clip from Danny’s 2008 stint on American Idol. Remarkably viewers can see from the pictures in the video that Adore clearly dressed as a girl in the group, though this was not mentioned on Idol.
Adore’s punk rock attitude influences all aspects of her life. A recent Tweet of hers shows she is not afraid to speak her mind:
Hi, my name is Adore FUCKING Delano NOT Ms. Cartoon Pinup Model Body.. Sometimes I do not synch because I actually perform on stage. #SuckIt
— Adore Delano (@AdoreDelano) June 6, 2014
Adore had something to say about that in person:
“A lot of people like to call me fat. It’s okay, I don’t take offense, I keep eating. I really don’t care. But this is the thing. I’m naturally rebellious. So if somebody tells me not to do something, I’ll completely keep on doing it.”
“My assistant and I fight all the time. I do not like taking direction. I do not like people controlling my life. I’m fucking punk, man. I don’t like people telling me what to do!”
Related: Adore Spills the Tee on the Breakup Behind ‘I Adore U’
Pick up some punk rock Adore swag on her website at AdoreDelano.com.
Here is Adore a.k.a. Danny Noriega in some alternative drag as Angel Baby, a chola from the hood. Angel Baby is a different character created by Danny in 2010 and she has the full punk rock attitude. There is a whole series of Angel Baby videos and each has received several hundreds of thousand of views on YouTube. Sometimes Angel Baby can look a little butch but in this video you can see some Adore-ableness shining through.
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