Drag Icon Chad Michaels: the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Would Be ‘Illegitimate’ Without Cher

Open Up and Read is the newsletter from music journalist Jason Brow. You can support by telling others to subscribe. You can toss a few dollars his way via Ko-Fi. Be kind to cats. Music is the best.

One day, RuPaul will cut the ribbon to a brick-and-mortal Drag Race Hall of Fame, celebrating both the winners of Drag Race All Stars and the drag performers who have graced the runway on the groundbreaking reality competition. 

And when that day comes, those first few fans will experience an entire ground floor dedicated to the first Hall of Fame entrant, the incomparable and iconic Chad Michaels.

“I did build this bitch,” says Michaels. She was already a highly respected drag artist and world-renowned Cher tribute performer before she competed on season 4 of Drag Race. Though she didn’t win on the first go, Michaels returned for the inaugural season of All Stars, where she—alongside her teammate, Shannell—dominated the second half of the competition. 

Ultimately, Michaels claimed the crown and earned her distinction as the first queen to secure a spot in the much-lauded “Drag Race Hall of Fame.”

So, if anyone knows what it takes to win All Stars, it’s Chad Michaels, especially as the current iteration reaches its climax.

“This is an amazing season, with some of the strongest competitors that they've ever had all together in one season,” she says of the ninth iteration of All Stars. 

“Gottmik is just a whole thing in themselves; they broke the mold. Gottmik's there. We've got Nina West, a Broadway superstar, a recording artist, and an actress who works with kids, creates children's books, and creates understanding in our community. And if anybody deserves to win, it’s Shannel, my partner. This bitch has been in the industry just a little under as long as I have. They're all amazing.”

But for those who want to put money down, Michaels, who spoke with Open Up and Read as part of a promotional campaign with BetUS, an online betting hub, has an insider tip on who’ll win AS9.

“I want to talk about the one who has a legacy behind them. I want to talk about the one who has been in this business for a very long time, who comes from one of the most respected families, drag families in the United States, if not the world,” Michaels said. “She’s won every major pageant in the United States and beyond someone who completely has longevity excellence, and that person is Roxxxy Andrews.”

Michaels spoke with me before the June 28 episode of All Stars, when Andrews won her fourth “Beautiful Benefactress Badge” (this season’s point gimmick, since the queens compete for money for their selective charities). Heading into the final weeks, Andrews and Plastique Tiara lead the pack.  

While Andrews has been one of the dominant contestants on this season of All Stars, Michaels says that this competition is “more of an acknowledgment of your achievement over time as opposed to being ‘America’s Next Drag Superstar.’” 

This includes creating a legacy outside of Drag Race—be it performing in clubs, touring the world, or competing in (and winning) pageants.

Only one All Stars queen stands above others in Michaels’ mind. “I'm ready to welcome Roxxxy Andrews into the RuPaul's Drag Race Hall of Fame.”

While Andrews has rarely faltered in this season of All Stars, Michaels’ former teammate has yet to find her footing. One of AS9’s storylines has been how Shannel—the first queen to appear on RuPaul’s Drag Race’s debut season in 2009—can’t win a main challenge. In the final few episodes, Shannel remains the only queen without a “Beautiful Benefactress Badge.”

Michaels says that we shouldn’t cry too much for Shannel.

“Let me tell you something about Shannel,” says Michaels. “She is thrilled to have this opportunity because Shannel is a showman. I don't care what she won and what she hasn't won this season; she has given you runway [looks] every single time. She doesn't hold back. That's who Shannel is: old-school Vegas. Shannel is [Vegas drag legend] Kenny Kerr. Shannel is one of those divas that did it the hard way, baby.”

While Michaels says she doesn’t like seeing Shannel struggle, she points out that her friend is not only on this season to compete for the All Star crown.

“Shannel has a life outside this with a very successful business, and that business is her future,” she says, referring to Santa’s Helpers Design, the Christmas prop rental and design company that Shannel (aka Bryan Watkins)  started in 2018. 

With All Stars making multiple references to Shannel being the “Queen of Christmas,” Michaels says that her friend is “getting all she needs” from this competition. “She's getting exposure,” says Michaels. “The competition will be over in a couple of weeks, and they'll be moving on, baby. It will be in the rear-view mirror and a distant memory.”

“But what's not going to be a distant memory?” she adds. “Shannel's three warehouses full of Christmas decorations in Las Vegas that she will be sending out all around the world to decorate and make—what? Money. Baby! Shannel is probably the smartest person on that show right now.

 But it’s not just about money. “All I have to say is that I've known Bryan for a very long time,” says Michaels, ”And they're just brilliant for doing what they did. It's just brilliant with this business. And what most people don't know is that Shannel's mom, Debbie, passed away about a decade ago now, and this business is for Debbie.”

“This business is for his mom because she loved him so much,” said Michaels, tearing up. “She was Mama Rose. She was that stage mom, and this business is for her. This is Shannel going, ‘Mom, look at what I fucking did.’ And it is massive, and it's big and it's beautiful. And I know that she's so proud of him.”

So, one doesn’t need to be inducted into a Hall of Fame to be considered a success. That brought the conversation with Chad Michaels to its logical conclusion: Cher.

Michaels is considered the Cher tribute performer. And she has opinions on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame finally inducting Cher into its ranks as part of the Class of 2024. 

“It took too friggin’ long,” says Michaels. “I’ve watched other artists and groups get inducted year after year that, I’m sorry, are under the rung from here.”

“I don't understand why it's taken this long, other than the fact that it is probably run by a bunch of old white guys,” Michaels says, before repeating the line Cher said on The Kelly Clarkson Show in December:“I wouldn’t be in it now if they gave me a million dollars…I’m never going to change my mind. They can just go you-know-what themselves.”

In May, one month after the Rock Hall announced this year’s inductees, Cher told Entertainment Tonight that she changed her mind and would accept the award. But!—she’s “going to have some words to say. I’m going to accept it as me.”

Michaels is living for this. 

“They should feel lucky that [Cher’s] accepting the induction and that she's going to frickin’ show up,” Michaels says. “That's the real tea. And if she didn't accept it, I would love it even more. But you bet your ass that this acceptance speech is going to be firecrackers, baby—and I can't wait. Bring it on. There’s a score to settle there. And they're just lucky that she's accepting it, in my opinion.”

“She built the house of rock and roll. She built it on the ground level, baby. She laid the foundations, its cornerstones, like—what's going on?” says Michaels, who thinks the Rock Hall had snubbed Cher for the past 37 years because she hasn’t been “malleable.”

“You know what I mean? She hasn't been silly-putty for them ever. Ever. She's done it— what she wanted to do, how she wanted to do it, when she wanted to do it. And a lot of people don't like that,” says Michaels.

“She’s been stabbing [the status quo] in the rib for six decades,” she adds. “So, I’m sure that they’re real fucking done with her at this point. But you know what? They have to give it to her. If they [the Rock Hall] don't, it's kind of illegitimate.”

“I get that she's just one woman and one artist, but there's very few people or artists or even groups that are a one-word household name that everybody knows. You know what I mean?”

Though Pride Month is over, a drag queen’s work is never done. Halloween is a few months away, and Christmas will soon be here. In 2019, I chatted with All Stars 9 contestant Nina West for her West Christmas Ever EP. A year later, we kikied over her channeling John Waters for her holiday song, “Cha-Cha Heels.”

Alaska Thunderfuck, aka Alaska 5000, won the second season of Drag Race All Stars. In 2021, we discussed her memoir, My Name’s Yours, What’s Alaska?

Speaking of which, I have an unpublished interview with Ginger Minj about her memoir. That will be the next installment of the Weekend Edition, arriving on Friday, June 12th.

In the grand tradition of bands thanking other bands in the liner notes of their albums (which leads to fans discovering new music), I want to thank Son Rompe Pera. The Mexcian cumbia-punk band opened for Fishbone this past Saturday. I’m still trying to figure out the faster, punkier song they played (while the big screen showed protestors demanding legal and safe access to abortion in Mexico).

More bands should incorporate a marimba into their sound or non-conventional instruments. More surf bands with saxophones. More ska bands with accordions. More cellos. Fuck it. UNLEASH THE BASSOONS.

Also, shout out to whoever picked that concert’s pre-show playlist. The warm up music included “War Ina Babylon” from Lee “Scratch” Perry and Subatomic Sound System’s 2017 album Super Ape Returns to Conquer.

Look, if ever you find someone who can’t vibe with dub reggae, don’t run away from them. But, at least, never sleep with them. I bet the sex will be bad. Embarrassingly so.

Until next time,
Jason 

Open Up and Read is the newsletter from music journalist Jason Brow. Support it by telling others to subscribe. You can also toss a few dollars his way via Ko-Fi.
Be kind to cats. Music is the best.