Right now all eyes are on Adam Lambert, the sexually aware, provocative performer who raised eyebrows when he made out with a male keyboardist and simulated oral sex with a backup dancer during his American Music Awards performance.

But in high school, Lambert was the fat kid. He told Sirius radio’s Larry Flick getting a response from the audience is what helps him love what he sees in the mirror.

"I suffered from a little bit of an ugly duckling complex early in my twenties and definitely in my teens," he told Flick on his show Morning Jolt. "When I was in high school I was 250 pounds, and that creates some stuff ... some body image stuff, some confidence issues, and I got a lot of my confidence from the validation I got as a performer."

Watch the video here.