Bob the Drag Queen on Earning Madonna’s ‘Stamp of Approval’ With New Touring Gig
Written by djfrosty on February 9, 2023
After years of touring around the globe, Bob the Drag Queen is gearing up for her biggest tour yet — and this time, it’s with pop icon Madonna.
In a new interview with Billboard, the drag superstar dishes on her upcoming special guest slot on Madonna’s 40 year-retrospective world trek, the Celebration Tour. “You ever think about how lucky you are to be alive at the same time as someone else?” Bob says. “We get to be alive at the same time as Madonna.”
The pair were first introduced when Bob served as host for Madonna’s New York Pride show at Terminal 5 in 2022. “Her daughter recommended me to host, and Madonna just really took a liking to me after that,” she says. “She sang me ‘Happy Birthday,’ she’s bought me cupcakes, I talk with her kids, and we just became really fast pals.”
It wasn’t until November of last year that Madonna officially asked Bob to join her on her expansive tour — or at least, Madonna thought she was officially asking Bob. “She DM’d my mom on Instagram, because she thought it was my Instagram,” Bob says with a laugh. “My mom texted me like, ‘Madonna wants to work with me!’ I was like, ‘Mom, I’m pretty sure she thinks you’re me.’ It came so close to being my mom on tour with Madonna instead of me.”
The RuPaul’s Drag Race season eight winner teased that fans can expect “a journey through four decades of the top-selling woman in the history of music,” with the queen “there to help facilitate the journey” throughout the show’s run.
Fans spotted Bob in Madonna’s tour announcement video, in which the star had a series of her celebrity friends — including Diplo, Amy Schumer, Judd Apatow, Jack Black and Lil Wayne — join her for a game of Truth or Dare. As Bob tells it, no one in the video knew what was supposed to happen until the cameras started rolling.
“I was the first one there, and then all of these people began streaming in. I was like, ‘Wait, Amy Schumer? Jack Black? What is going on?’” Bob recalls. “We all thought that we were individually going to be taking some photos with Madonna, none of us knew about this. Only Madonna could get us all to show up like that.”
When it comes to personal impact, Bob says she’s been moved by Madonna’s grace and trust in her. “She respects me in a way that doesn’t feel like a novelty,” she says. “Obviously, what matters most is how I feel about myself, but still, a stamp of approval from Madonna is just like … ‘What?!’”
The Celebration Tour kicks off July 15 in Vancouver, B.C. Get your tickets to see Bob and Madonna on tour here.