Jacob Lusk joins Hattie Collins on Apple Music for an in-depth discussion about his experience as one of Elton John’s phenomenal surprise guests at Glastonbury, his latest album “Angels and Queens’, and working with the Blessed Madonna. In a candid and honest interview, he opens up about his childhood, growing up as a queer teenager in LA, and how he never let his sexuality be the focus of his identity.
Jacob Lusk tells Apple Music about his experience at Glastonbury compared to other festivals…
So much love and so much support and it was explained to me, people buy the tickets before they even know what the lineup is. And I hear it sells out in minute. I was in the mall and I was like, "Yeah, we're going to be at Glastonbury." And they were like, "Yeah, we had seven computers running and we couldn't get any tickets." And I was like, "Oh wow." So everyone's just there to have a really good time and then there's not any separation. So whether you have a lot of money or a little bit of money, you can still be down at the front. There's not a VIP section down front. Lil Nas X was on before Elton John and I wanted to see Lil Nas X and they were like, "Well you got to get in the crowd with everybody else buddy." And I was like, "No, but I'm going to be on the Pyramid Stage in a minute. You don't even know." And they were like, and I have the pyramid pass and everything. They were like, "Nope." Yeah, but it's just beautiful. It really is.
Jacob Lusk tells Apple Music what was going through his mind as he went on stage for Elton John’s headline slot…
Don't eff this up. Don't mess this up. Make sure you sing good. I mean honestly, it was all a real blur, a big blur. I think, I've never sang the song before and so I think there was a little bit of like, okay, just make sure you do a good job. Don't do too much. Just do the right thing. This is Elton John. Honor him. Reverence. There was all of these things going through my head.
It was such a blur. It kind of all feels like a dream, like it really didn't happen. So usually after Elton's shows, I'll like get to see him afterward, but this time they whisked him off right after he finished his set. So I didn't even really get to see him after or talk to him after. So it really doesn't feel real still.
Jacob Lusk tells Apple Music what his favourite Gabriels songs are...
My favourite is probably either ‘Taboo’ or ‘Great Wind’. Those are probably my favourite. And ‘Glory’. That's three. Sorry.
Jacob Lusk tells Apple Music about the album imagery for ‘Angels & Queens’…
It was interesting because I wanted to keep it open, so I didn't want it to be a traditional baptism. So it's a woman baptising me. She's not really in a baptismal role or a preaching thing. So it was more of a renewal and a rebirth into a way of doing life that may be different than what I thought of or knew previously. And that's really more the vibe of this is a new day, this is a new dawn, whatever things happened before the old is gone and now there's a new life coming forth.
Jacob Lusk tells Apple Music about the decisions that led to the album imagery choices…
It's the themes of the music for sure. There's a lot of transition that happens in the album, like Taboo, transitioning out of a bad relationship; If You Only Knew, a loved one passing on; Remember Me, remembering myself and letting go of what's going on in the past. So there's a lot of renewal, there's a lot of the circle of life, be it moving to that next plateau, moving to the new thing and also not being afraid to try something different. Not being afraid to be different. Not being afraid to you know what? It's just who I was before, but I can be somebody else now.
Jacob Lusk explains to Apple Music how Gabriels build a song together…
We do it all together. So usually Ari and Ryan are probably have some type of music idea that they worked on and then they'll run it past me and then we'll sit in a room and we'll watch a movie or we'll talk about something that's happening on in our lives, something we talked about a month ago or two months ago. And then we'll start to construct the song and then the song takes its own wings and it tells us where it wants to go. So that may mean changing the music melody completely, adding a whole new part or we let the song tell us where to go.
Jacob Lusk discusses with Apple Music about his experience growing up queer in Compton, LA…
My sexuality was never really a big part of it like that, believe it or not. It still isn't. I never made that my focus and I still don't. I mean I talk about it a little more openly now I guess. But I just, I wanted to be successful. Luckily for me, I didn't grow up in a household where ... I wasn't beat over the head with marrying, even though I was very religious. I was never like, you going to get married, you going to have five kids. That never happened in my house, thank God. It was, you're going to go to college, you're going to be a doctor. I'd like to wear different clothes and always dress differently. My mom always let me express myself. I was never told I wasn't good enough. I didn't have that. It was quite the opposite. I was always told I was great. Maybe I was too beautiful. Who do I think I was? And not in a bad way, in a very encouraging way. I was taught that whatever I set my mind to, I could do. And I'm really grateful for it.
Jacob Lusk tells Apple Music about making ‘Mercy’ with The Blessed Madonna, and finding the sweet spot between dance floor and church…
I think we did (find the sweet spot). She let me come and sing with her in Madrid. So I don't go out. I don't club. I'm sober, I don't drink or anything like that. And so I've never quite experienced that whole DJ dance thing. I've never seen it live in action. And so she invited 40 dancers, I think, on stage with her. And I usually would just stay back and just come out when it's my turn to sing. And I was like, "Eh, I'm not going to do that today." And I danced with everybody for an hour before I sang, which is wild because I just, that's not even me. And I was like, "Oh my God, I get it. This is kind of their church. They get to come here. Nobody judges them. You get to be whoever you want to be and you just dance."
And even me, after I started dancing for after 15 minutes in, I forgot about whatever I was stressed about, I forgot about the album, I forgot all those things I was stressed about and I was just able to have a good time. And I had on my tuxedo. No one else had on a tuxedo, but nobody made me feel weird for having on my tux. It was a vibe. And I was like, “oh wow”. And I actually got a little emotional afterwards because I was like, oh wow, this woman is really special. She's really doing this from her heart. She's curating a moment for people to just be free and let go, and it was really special.
