Rufus Wainwright: ‘I had a great party trick, but it once blew up in my face’ | Rufus Wainwright

If you could have a sandwich named after you, what would be on it?

I would have a really gross sandwich named after me that nobody would want to eat. The one time I tried to cook – many, many years ago, when I was in college – I decided to make all the things that I love and put them in one dish. And so it was brussels sprouts, macaroni and cheese, merguez sausages, extra blue cheese and broccoli. And it was literally grey. So yeah, it would be something revolting like that, between two pieces of cardboard.

You’ve collaborated with some incredible artists. What’s the best lesson you’ve learned from one of them?

Opera singer Renée Fleming and I were once talking, and she repeated one of the great maxims – of classical music anyway – that I think she learned from Beverly Sills. Essentially, you work really, really, really hard on music – you practise and memorise and do your technique, all of that. But then the minute you go on stage, you desperately have to try to forget it all. Try to forget everything.

You need a lot of training to do anything well, but when you’re doing it, you have to not rely on the training. You have to be liberated from it. It’s a tough thing to do!

What is your earliest memory of music?

Probably my mother [singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle] singing horrifying French Canadian lullabies about dead geese in the woodshed – The Old Great Goose is Dead. It’s like, “There are dead animals in the woodshed! And good night!”

If you could resize any animal to keep us a pet, what would it be?

I’ve always been obsessed with bison. I would love a big bison to snuggle up with, but that also could kill other people for me, on command. I wouldn’t change its size. I’m a size queen.

What is the best gift you’ve ever received?

My dad [singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III] has never been one to give me much in terms of gifts or attention or advice. And I say that in a loving way because for lack of quantity he makes up in quality. Every once in a while he will just say one thing, or give me one thing, and it totally changes my life. So he kind of saves it.

And when I was about seven, he gave me a tiny little Casio keyboard, and it had these little sounds. And I just spent hours and hours and hours on that little keyboard. I was obsessed with it.

Who is your favourite pop star right now?

I’m on the Chappell Roan train. I think she’s an incredible singer, I love her sensibility, I love her aesthetic. Chappell Roan for sure.

What’s your most controversial opinion about pop culture?

The gays have really horrible taste in music. In general.

You say that right after praising Chappell Roan – to many, a gay icon!

I know, I know, but there are exceptions to the rule. Look, I’m gay, so I can say it, but especially homosexual men – and women too actually, when they get too far into the twangy guitar stuff – I don’t know. We’ve got to raise the bar here.

What’s the most memorable fan encounter you’ve ever had?

When I was younger, there was a woman, she was very sweet. She would come to all of my shows and she would bring me brooches, tons of brooches. And it was very cute at the time, and they were quite nice, the brooches – but she just came to every one.

She started to drive to the shows, and she would open up the back, and her entire car was filled with brooches – like she had a station wagon, and it was all brooches, and I was like, “Oh, something’s wrong here.”

And it turns out she had abandoned her family – her children and her husband – and was living in her car, and that my music had totally driven her crazy. And so she would drive to my shows with full carloads of brooches … She was like a little housewife from the Midwest, you know, probably in her late 30s at the time, and she just up and left her family and followed me to every show around America, and became a brooch fanatic.

She would talk to me – she’d say, “I never knew beauty before in my life. And then I heard your music, and I had to follow the beauty” … I hope she’s OK.

Do you have a nemesis?

I always considered Jake Shears [of Scissor Sisters] to be kind of my nemesis. We’re very good friends, we adore each other, but he’s always had this kind of commercial and popular success that frankly, I’m quite jealous of. And also his physique, and the way he’s – he’s always having so much fun. And I love their music.

Do you have a party trick?

When I used to drink a lot I had a great party trick, but it once blew up in my face.

So you know sambuca, and they put it in those little shot glasses, and they put the flame on it? If it’s burning and you put your hand over it really fast, it sucks the oxygen out and you can lift up the glass – like, it sticks to your hand, suction because of the flame. So I would do that at parties – it’s actually kind of a fun trick!

But one time I was taken out to dinner by my record company, all these new people, and I showed them the trick and they thought it was hilarious. And then I said, “Well, let’s all do it together!” So they get a whole tray of sambucas, and they lit them all on fire, and they put them on the table. And I was like, “Are you ready, everybody? Let’s do the trick!”

And I went down, but I was the only one who actually did it – they all chickened out. But what happened, because the drinks had been sitting there so long, the glass was burning hot and I ended up getting a second-degree burn on my hand.

It was such symbolism of the whole music industry, like, “Yeah, yeah, we’re right there behind you! Go ahead!” – and then you’re the one who gets fried.