Jeffree Star Talks Some Trash, Some Sense

Local native Jeffree Star may remind you a lot of 2006, but he's back with Beauty Killer, his second album and performing all over the country this summer. He'll be at the Galaxy this Thursday (we're giving away tickets!) if you want to get your untz untz untz on. Since we always wondered what made him tick, we e-mailed him a few questions about growing up in OC, working with Matt Skiba from Alkaline Trio and why he decided to be a performer. Read his answers after the jump.
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OC Weekly: You grew up in Orange County. What are your favorite local spots?
Jeffree Star: Even though its cliche, I love shopping at South Coast Plaza because they have all my favorite designer addictions! Also, since I'm obsessed with cupcakes, I love that Orange County has a Sprinkles location in Newport. When I wanna see bands play in a fun setting, I head to Chain Reaction in Anaheim. The staff is amazing and I've been going there since I was a teenager.

Name three of your biggest music inspirations.

1. The Spice Girls–they changed my whole out look on music when I was in sixth grade. I wanted to be larger then life and have 7-inch platforms. They were like the female Kiss to me but way hotter and STD free 😉
2. The concept of “love”–growing up and learning what love was, it made me wanna create music so I could express how I felt about my experiences. Love and its dark side were a big play in my album Beauty Killer.

3. Madonna's vagina–After reading Madonna's sex book and listening to her music, I felt so inspired at a young age to be who I wanted to be and not let anyone try and change me. Madonna is a legend forever.

What's the wildest thing that's ever happened at your show?

Recently on my Europe tour someone threw beer on my guitar player, so I jumped off stage and the fans pointed out who did it. I beat him with my microphone and assaulted him with my heels. People should know by now I don't fuck around.
But usually the wild things happen AFTER the show.. in Germany two weeks ago I had a threesome with two straight Army men that were stationed there from the U.S. … pretty hot.

How do you react to claims that you're only famous for being famous?

I laugh at those claims now because I've played sold-out tours, have a lot of music out now and a successful clothing venture in every mall across America. So if anyone still thinks I do “nothing” and make money, they need to calm down and make out with me.

You worked with Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio) on your second album. What was that like?

I've always respected Alkaline Trio and Matt's lyrics so it was really cool to have him sing on one of my songs. Him and I have been friends for a few years now and even though our music is completely different, he totally gets what I'm about. It's nice to have other artists like what you do and wanna be a part of it.

Do you have a political agenda as a gay performer? What is it?
My whole goal in general is to make my fans feel better about themselves. I think in this day and age people have started to forget what “acceptance” is and that's scary. Gay people are still looked at like aliens. We're treated different and so many people have hate towards us. I have a portrait of Matthew Shepard tattooed on my back that says “Erase Hate” for that reason. I hope that by being myself and not saying “no” to anyone will inspire people to do the same.