The RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 2 Family Girl
It’s funny how you perceive someone, when in reality they turn out to be nothing like you thought they were. Although I’ve always been a fan of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season five contestant Detox, after speaking with her, I now have a great respect for her as well.
After appearing in music videos with Ke$ha and Rihanna as a part of Chad Michael’s “Dreamgirls Revue,” and being in the band Tranzkuntinental with Willam, Kelly Mantle, Rhea Litre and Vicky Vox, she became a contestant on “RuPauls Drag Race” season five. During the show she sang the “We Are the World”-inspired song “Can I Get an Amen,” with the song’s proceeds going to the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
Now chosen for “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 2,” she begins again! Detox is an awesome person, the caretaker of the other contestants and a big family girl who is brought to tears just talking about them…something not too many people are aware of.
How are you?
I’m well. I’m exhausted. It’s just been a crazy, whirlwind week.
How does it feel doing this competition all over again?
It’s pretty crazy. I wasn’t really expecting it to be so quick. But at the same time, I have a completely different mind set this time around. We all have a feel of how the game is played, so it’s a little easier going into it this time. We know each other. It’s not like we have to get to know a bunch of new girls, so it’s kind of familiar, but at same time it’s stressful and crazy.
Which do you think is more nerve-racking, this time around or the original season five?
It’s a give or take honestly. The first time around you’re not really aware of what’s going to happen. You don’t really know anything about the production, concepts, and you really don’t know who’s going to be there. This time around, we are all so comfortable around each other, but at the same time it’s a competition still, so we want to kick ass, and unfortunately friendships might come and go because of that. There is all those new dynamics on top of that.
What is your take on the possibility that you might be sending a friend home?
It sucks! It’s really a scary situation. You want to do well, and you want to win the challenges, but you don’t want to send anyone home, because you don’t want to feel like a dick. But, it’s what has to happen. So you just have to put all those feelings aside and hope that your friendships are strong enough to withhold all this extra bullshit.
Who are you closest with on “All-Stars”?
I’m close with all of them. Obviously I’m very close with Roxxxy, I’m close with Alaska, I love Tatianna. I mean, we all travel the world together. Adore is like my little baby, so I’m very protective of her. I always attribute myself to being like the mother hen making sure everyone is taken care of. So it sucks, because we are all so close, and eventually we have to say goodbye.
If it weren’t for RuPaul and “Drag Race” and “All-Stars,” would you still be doing drag?
Oh, absolutely. I love it. I started doing drag when I was 15 years old, but I started professionally doing it when I was around 17. So I’ve been doing it for 13, 14 years now. I’ve been doing it for half of my life now. Granted, the potential of “Drag Race” has opened up more doors now, but it’s something that I love so much, and I don’t see myself doing anything else that doesn’t have drag incorporated in it. It’s such a passion of mine.
You also sing as well, correct?
I sing, I act, I do all kinds of stuff. I’m very crafty. Right now my sister and I are renovating a home together, which is really fun, because I’m very familial. I love being with my family, and she just bought a 5,600 square-foot house in Chicago, so we’re renovating it right now, which is really fun. My sister and I used to own a store together. We used to do home-improvement contracts and interior fashions, and it reminds me when we were young and doing all this kind of stuff.
How butch!
Yeah, you wouldn’t expect me to be a home improvement man. I’m kind of like the Martha Stewart of drag.
Besides renovating houses, touring and doing the “All-Stars,” what are you doing in your life?
That’s all I have time for. I’m touring constantly; I’m always on the road. I’m working on some new music. I just shot a new music video at the house in Chicago that we’re renovating. We are working on a bunch of secret projects, like to take the Detox brand and turn it into a lifestyle brand. I want to put my hands on everything and dominate everything.
Detox, how did you get your name?
By being a drunk. I started going out when I was really young. I was 15 years old when I went out for the first time. Because I was so young and so drunk all of the time, walking around with 10-inch platform shoes, so I used to fall all over the place. I was a mess. I kind of loved it, and it sucked, but I couldn’t imagine myself being called anything else.
Your biography has just come out. What is the name of it?
“Crack Is Back, the Memoirs of Detox.”
Who inspires you musically, besides Willam?
I don’t know if Willam inspires me, but I definitely worked with her. I’m a huge fan of Robin and Peaches, and Madonna is pretty much my favorite icon, but I’m not really sure if they inspire me. I think everyday life inspires me, whatever I’m doing with music right now, which unfortunately isn’t much. I haven’t had time to really be inspired by anything, because I’ve been traveling so much. So I’m really looking forward to the time when I can take a month or two off and go escape somewhere, and disappear, and get re-inspired, re-influenced with my surroundings. Right now I’m focused on renovating my house with my family. I have other projects, like I have a YouTube series with my mother called “Eat It Up With Detox,” which is basically my mom and I getting wine drunk and making my favorite childhood recipes and interviewing our favorite people. I have a cookbook coming out. I’m very family oriented, and any time I get a chance to do anything with my family, because I rarely get to see them, I try and make it a point to include them in my projects. We have such a crazy dynamic. We have been through so much together. We are all a bunch of crazy characters. And my mom especially is a crazy character. She’s a fan girl. So anytime I get to involve her with anything “Drag Race” related, she gets so excited.
I think that’s the cutest thing ever.
I do too. People don’t really know that about me, that I am very family oriented, but I am.
I would have never thought!
I know, I know! But they are the most important thing to me, so whenever I get a chance to be with them, I try to include them. That’s why we are working on so many things together. It’s really important to me that I get to spend time with the most important people in my life.
If somebody told you that you couldn’t do music or drag anymore, what would you do to be creative?
I would probably start doing something like interior design or set design, something like that. I just directed my first music video with my friend Gina Garen, and we came up with all the set concepts and all the styling. We tried to do something that still involved style and fashion.
You are all over the place, girl!
I am all over the place! A drag of all trades.
If you could say anything to your fans, what would it be?
Just that I love them, and thank you for being so supportive of me and my career. I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t for them. I am very lucky to be able to have a career, and be an artist because of the support of all the fans in the “Drag Race” community, and all of the people who have followed my career even before “Drag Race.” And my family, they have been so supportive of everything I do. I couldn’t be there without the support, so thank you everyone.
I love that you love your family so much.
I get very teary-eyed every time I talk about them. They are so important to me. It’s so important to have a close connection with your family, because it’s very rare that gay people have that kind of connection. It took me a long time to have that. We have been through thick and thin. They have been constantly supportive, and I have to appreciate that. I’m very lucky.
Where are you from originally?
I’m from Orlando, Florida, but my father was in the State Department, so we moved quite a bit. We were in a different state like every two years. I spent a lot of time in Arizona, then my dad moved us to North Carolina. We stayed there for a while until my mom and I pretty much had enough. It was the first time I was ever called a faggot. It was crazy, because it was a complete 180 from Arizona. As soon as my mom found the opportunity, she was like, “We’re out of here.”
What kind of advice would you give a new aspiring drag queen?
Don’t do it! On a serious note, I would say, just be unapologetically and unabashedly yourself. Don’t try to be anyone else. Find out what kind of character and persona you have, and be that. Don’t be a cookie-cutter. Be your own person. It worked for me.
Yes, it certainly did. Is there anything that you would like to promote for yourself?
“Eat It Up With Detox” is on YouTube. I have another YouTube series coming out really soon, but I can’t really talk about it. Also, my new single “Supersonic” is on iTunes and Amazon. The video is dropping later this week.
Any last words?
I love you guys.
Detox
(Season Five) Los Angeles, CA
Twitter: @TheOnlyDetox
Instagram: @theonlydetox
