PARTING SHOT
RUPAUL GOT HIS FIRST BREAK IN 1989, AS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BACKUP dancer in the music video for the B-52s hit “Love Shack.” Before then, he was a struggling performer dancing in bars or fronting his band, Wee Wee Pole, in Atlanta’s gay-scruffy music scene. After moving to New York City—becoming a key member of the Pyramid Club’s drag revolution—Ru made a leap from the fringes to the mainstream, beginning with music. His first hit single, “Supermodel (You Better Work),” was prophetic, because he hasn’t stopped, creating a TV reality show spinoff empire that began on Logo in 2008 with the Emmy-winning RuPaul’s Drag Race, which starts its 10th season, on VH1, on March 22.
The mother of all drag queens has been a legend to his fans for decades, and Hollywood is finally catching up. On March 16, he will receive a star on the Walk of Fame. “It feels like the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me,” says RuPaul, who grew up in San Diego and asked his family to drop him off at Hollywood Boulevard when they visited Los Angeles, just to gaze at the stars. “It’s more important than the Emmys, honestly. I get choked up thinking about it.”