As one of the most prolific queens to emerge from the Sunshine State’s drag scene, Latrice Royale knows that with her fanbase and platform, it is crucial to use her platform for good.

 

Not only has Royale hit stages all over the globe, but she is now heading out for her new solo tour, the aptly titled “Life Goes On”. Throughout songs and stories, Royale weaves in the importance of supporting the art of drag along with her own life experiences. We sat down to discuss her new tour, reflections on her RuPaul’s Drag Race journey, and why it remains crucial that we all make our voices heard, now more than ever before.

 

 

Latrice Royale: That I am doing it by myself, which is wonderful. I have done so many, just about every group tour that you could imagine, I’ve seen it, and been on it. I’ve toured abroad with “Here’s To Life”. I did some tours in the United States, but not too much a full on tour. This solo tour is so important because of the political climate we are in, it’s so poignant and so necessary. I did not know how important it was until I did my first show in Oklahoma City. It was one of those a-ha moments where I knew that we were walking in our purpose right now and that this is what people need. I am so happy to be doing it. It is a little scary but I am not backing down. I am fully engaged; this is not my first time at the rodeo. If there is one thing that I know how to do, it’s how to stand up to bullies.

 

 

LR: That room was so full of love and they were so ready to receive any bit of hope and glimpse of a better tomorrow. Christopher (Hamblin) and I sharing our story with these people, especially after the pandemic, we have not seen them fully since we’ve been married and the pandemic happened and all of that was going on around the same time. They are getting to really reconnect and reengage with me in a way that is very reminiscent of Season 4 (of RuPaul’s Drag Race) when I first came out. We had to hold the opening because the ovation was so overwhelming and so loud, I could not even start the song, I just had to stand there and receive it. They lost their shit, they were on their feet cheering and screaming, it was everything. Everything, way more than I could have expected.

 

 

LR: It does, but at the same time it doesn’t. I am still friends with all my sisters from the show but because there have been so many extensions of the show and franchises, now it has become global. I am literally in love with my sisters. We are becoming more of a united front, especially now that we have a common goal and cause to fight for, which is our lives and our livelihood. It is really wonderful to see, not just Drag Race sisters, but my sisters that I grew up in drag with, they are standing up and rallying together and trying to figure out what we are going to do in Tallahassee and in our state of Florida to combat this shit. It is just too much.

 

 

LR: It’s necessary. I told everybody in my audience last night and I will continue to tell them; that whether you are a drag queen, a burlesque performer, whatever you do and you love drag and you have been supportive of drag, you sitting in this seat right now is a political statement. You are already making your voice heard, but I need it not to stop here I need you to go further. I need you to go out and beat the pavement and hit these polls and vote and get these bitches outta here, I have had it. This is why I am so excited about the tour; if nothing else, we are going to get more momentum. There are a lot of allies in my audience, there are a lot of people who don’t necessarily consider themselves queer, but they are allies. Drag has influenced them and has been a part of their life for years and now they are bringing their children because their children might be queer and it has brought the family together. You have to be some sort of special asshole to boycott what I am doing; that is the bottom line.

 

 

LR: I love it. It has always been my goal to make sure that he had his own life and he wasn’t just “Latrice’s husband”. I want him to be Christopher Hamblin, he is a musician, he is a very intelligent, he is knowledgable, he loves theater, he lives all of the arts. To see him being seen…whoo…that is all that I could ask for.

 

 

LR: Very surreal; who would’ve thought? If you had told me thirty years ago when I started doing this that I would be on the Vegas strip headlining, what are you talking about? In drag? And here we are. That show was such an amazing experience. I couldn’t help but feel good every night, especially working with my sisters. What the people don’t know is that the real show was in the dressing room. The way that we cut up in the dressing room baby, I am with my pageant girls. You are with Alexis (Mateo) and Coco (Montrese), those are two mouths you don’t want a part of (laughs)! We cut up on each other so much and so fiercely and its so much fun. It just reminded me of the camaraderie that we had back in the day and what has been missing a little bit. That is literally my favorite part of being part of that show, the backstage antics.

 

 

LR: You know what, we were free; it felt like we were free. We had a sense of freedom that was unmatched, we didn’t censor ourselves, there was not so much of these video cameras and everything wasn’t documented like it is today. We did things that we could never get away with on camera today; it was free. As much as we have been more exposed to the masses, that comes with a lot of pushback. I tell people, I tell them that when when were nightcrawlers in the nightclubs in the wee hours of the night into the morning, nobody gave a damn. Now, we’re on your tv, we’re at your brunches, we’re all over the world. We are all over the world and in different countries. Everywhere you look, there is drag. And now, it’s a problem.

 

 

LR: Everyone needs to understand how important drag is. If you get to know the people behind the art and the craft, you will find that we are deep rooted. We come from struggle, we come from having to persevere and overcome obstacles and there are obstacles that we have to overcome. To know us, you will see that you might benefit from having met a drag queen. Just knowing how resilient we are, we are about love and joy and that is what we bring to the world. To condemn something that you don’t know anything about, that is a real ignorant choice.