Post-‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ St. Pete’s Discord Addams wants to lead the punk revolution

RuPaul doesn’t remember every contestant who’s been on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” After judging more than 200 different queens across variations of the show, the 65-year-old drag legend doesn’t even recognize All Stars winners anymore.

But he knew Discord Addams before filming even started on Season 18. 

“He was like, ‘Where’s the girl with the neck tattoo?’” winner Mykki Meeks recalled at a watch party, mimicking RuPaul pointing at Discord on that first day in the werk room. “I’ve been watching your tape for years. I’ve been waiting for you to be here.”

And it’ll be hard for RuPaul and ‘Drag Race’ fans to forget the St. Petersburg queen after her iconic slouchy runway walk went viral.

Before heading out on her “Emo Fest” tour and headlining Cocktail’s Pride weekend this month, Addams talked to CL about making it to the top six, reinventing The Pope and starting a creative revolution. (This conversation has been edited for clarity and length)

CL: I had to resist doing The Walk™ just now. How many people are doing it to you?

Literally everyone. I love it, I think it’s so cool. What I actually love is seeing all my sisters
have to do it. They all wanted me to leave the competition so bad, and now they can’t do any single red carpet, any single meet and greet, without having to be me. And I just think
that’s like, fun secret revenge.

I really loved seeing how much RuPaul loved it. What was the dynamic like with the other queens after she remembered you?

I think, because of that, they were like, “Oh, shit, Discord’s gonna win.” So, they all wanted to be my friend, and then, once I was safe, safe, safe, safe, safe, they kind of started to discount me out of the competition. But you know, I think being consistently safe means I’m kind of consistently good at everything.

The only thing I was actually mad about was the Snatch Game. I should have won the
Snatch Game.

How did you come up with your hilarious, flamboyant Pope character for Snatch Game?

There’s this old character that Martin Short used to play in the early 2000s called Jiminy Glick. I was like, ‘I can’t do Jiminy Glick, that’ll probably be character infringement, but also not a lot of people who watch ‘Drag Race’ are going to know who that is. How can I take those similar characterizations? What character can I put that on?’ And my brain just said The Pope. Every once in a while, I’ll bring him back for Cameo.

Tell me about how it’s been being back since you’ve been on the show, because you were…How long were you doing the Cocktail watch parties?

So, I did the watch parties for all of Season 17. I’m the one who forced them to start that up, because they were very hesitant. They were like, ‘People don’t come here to watch that.’ I was like, ‘I promise you, they will. Just trust me. If it doesn’t go well in two weeks, cancel it. Who gives a fuck?’ But it didn’t (get canceled), and (fans) showed up. And then I got to kind of build the audience and get them used to the idea that I was going to be on, because I knew about halfway through the season. I kept pretending, like, ‘Oh my gosh, should I audition? Would you guys want that?’ knowing that I was going to be on.

Do you keep in touch with any of the queens from your season?

Oh, yeah, we have a WhatsApp chat. It’s all of us, and I would say it’s active every day, which was just cool. How close we looked on screen, we were definitely even closer than that. And it was just nice to have a season of no drama, and just adults showing art and showing drag—what that’s supposed to be. 

Right now we have an entire government trying to tear us down, and make queer people look evil and look bad, and to have a season that highlights that we’re not that, and to kind of steer away from the drama to show like, look how fucking talented queer people can be, I think that’s what ‘Drag Race’ needed, whether the fans agree or not. I think in the long run, they’re gonna look back on it and think it was really important to have. If they want to see drama, they can fucking watch ‘Dragula.’

Why villainize queer people when we’re already being villainized every single day?

I kind of want to be this generation’s answer to Nirvana…I can feel it in the air that everyone’s tired of bullshit.

Discord Addams

Tell me about your Emo Fest tour and your upcoming punk album.

I kind of want to be this generation’s answer to Nirvana, and I know that’s a fucking tall order, and that’s fucking crazy to say, but I feel like where we’re at as a society right now is we need something like that. I can feel it in the air that everyone’s tired of bullshit. This is what feels like the end of the ‘80s, where people were tired of the electronic pop, people were tired of hair metal, people were tired of the costumery of it all, and I feel like now, where we’re at, people are tired of the Kardashians, people are tired of AI, people are tired of the Taylor Swift of it all. We want something that feels real, that feels tangible, because everything else is just AI slop now.

God, I’m so tired of AI slop.

I feel like where we’re at now, this is when Nirvana came in and ushered in grunge. I feel
like 2026-2027 it’s kind of the grunge era. I want live instruments. I don’t want hyper production. In America, we don’t, we don’t have that, and if we do, it’s getting, it’s getting suppressed.

So being on Drag Race, I have a built-in audience already, and I kind of don’t have to fight
against the algorithms. so if I can just come out with an album that’s like, ‘Fuck Donald Trump, fuck the government,’ then that’s gonna be great, because it’ll push to an audience immediately.

How do you see yourself growing as a performer post-‘Drag Race?’

I want to be a music artist. I want to break outside of just gay clubs and just outside of the gay world. I want to be kind of that bridge that brings straight people into drag, and that creates a safe space for everybody to be there. I consistently say there’s nothing different about what I want to do than what David Bowie was doing, or than what Alice Cooper was doing, or what Lady Gaga is even doing. These are all drag queens that just so happen to be mainstream and they’re not considered drag queens. So when I make music, I want to be a music artist first and I just happen to be in drag.

Are you planning to stay in FL?

I love Florida so much, I love St. Pete so much. I don’t want to leave unless there was some wild, crazy opportunity where I had no choice but to move. I built such an actual community here, and that’s what I’ve wanted my entire drag career.

What do you have to say to queer people in Florida who are in despair and aren’t sure if they should leave?

So, honestly, my favorite touring is going to smaller, more red states, because in the blue states and the bigger cities, we all agree with each other. They’re all liberal there. I’m not making that much of a difference. When I speak out, it’s like a big giant circle jerk. That was also one of the reasons why I wanted to leave Chicago, because my drag is inherently political, and being political in a city that already agrees with you kind of means nothing.

It’s way more important to build stronger communities in states that want us gone, because if we just leave, then they win. But if we build louder, build stronger in these areas, we can flip them, and they don’t have to stay red. I think it’s good to at least find these smaller cities in your red states to organize, because these are the places that need the organization, that need hope, these are the places where we’re gonna need each other when shit inevitably gets worse.

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This article appears in May 28 – June 03, 2026.