Patti LaBelle Declares A Truth! Calls Herself ‘The Original Drag Queen’!

Patti LaBelle Declares A Truth! Calls Herself ‘The Original Drag Queen’!

"Patti LaBelle is a gay icon — and she knows it.

“I’m the original drag queen,” the Godmother of Soul, 77, told Page Six. “I was wearing crazy hair, crazy makeup, crazy clothes [from the beginning].”

Since launching her music career in the 1960s, LaBelle has been adored by gay men across the world — and the feeling is mutual.

“I always accepted everybody,” she said. “And I think they saw [in] me someone that they could spill their hearts to. And they just follow me.

“I love gay people. I love all people,” she continued. “I think my gay following realize that I’m one of those girls that they can come to say whatever they have to say, and I say, ‘It’s OK.'”

And the “Lady Marmalade” singer has no plans to slow down anytime soon. In fact, she is heading back on the road starting in mid-September.

“I’m so excited to wear pumps and a costume, get on that stage with a microphone in my hand, and to see an audience who’s safe, who’s vaccinated, who’s laughing together, loving together and cheering and all of that stuff,” she told us. “I can’t wait to see a live audience.”

LaBelle said she travels with a masseuse “to make sure we keep these 77-year-old bones right, and I do things in the hotel suite, like jumping jacks and different things to move around. … I take care of myself.”

The “Dancing with the Stars” alum can also be seen in Old Spice’s new Men Have Skin Too campaign, in which she hilariously plays Old Spice Guy’s mother-in-law, who isn’t shy in splashing on some of the brand’s products herself.

After all, LaBelle told us she grew up in a family of men who used Old Spice — and she still uses it to this day.​" - Pagesix.com