Bob the Drag Queen reveals how he met Madonna (and whether he'll tell her about Kimonogate)
Bob the Drag Queen's friendship with Madonna was simply human nature.
In an exclusive interview alongside Monét X Change about their new BOMO Beauty line, the RuPaul's Drag Race winner tells EW's Quick Drag podcast (below) the story of how he first met the global pop superstar — which eventually led to him joining her upcoming Celebration world tour.
"Lola, her daughter, recommended me for her Pride show — recommended that I host the show, actually," Bob recalls. "When I got there, me and Madonna got close, it was my birthday at the time, she got me cupcakes and sang me happy birthday."
The We're Here producer-star and drag performer is now friends with Madonna's children as well, but there came a pinch-me moment when he comically questioned whether or not he'd truly been accepted into Madge's family.
"[Me and Madonna] hit it off. The gaggiest moment was like, I have a number for Madonna, but I don't know if it's the real number, there's no way Madonna gave me her real number. Someone on her team was like, 'I can't give you Madonna's real number, but you can tell me the number you have, and I'll tell you if that's the right number,'" he says. "I read it and they were like, 'Oh my God, Madonna gave you her phone number.'"
MTV/World of Wonder; Larry Busacca/Getty Images Bob the Drag Queen and Madonna.
Bob, who won RuPaul's Drag Race season 8, only recently met the 64-year-old, but the pop legend's aesthetic was an important part of his time on the Emmy-winning reality competition series. One episode of the 2016 season saw RuPaul tasking the queens with wearing Madonna-inspired outfits on the runway, and Bob recreated the singer's 2013 GLAAD Media Awards outfit: a protest look modeled after a Boy Scout uniform.
Elsewhere on the same runway, however, fans were treated to the infamous Kimonogate, where four contestants — Thorgy Thor, Derrick Barry, Kim Chi, and Naomi Smalls — wore kimonos modeled after Madonna's "Nothing Really Matters" music video. Bob tells EW he hasn't yet asked Madonna if she's aware of the notorious Drag Race moment, but that might change on the road.
"We don't really talk about Drag Race when we're together. We talk about Socrates, Plato, Aristotle," he says. "We usually talk about work when we're together. Maybe, at some point during the tour, I'll be like, 'Did you know about Kimonogate on RuPaul's Drag Race?' Maybe I need to recreate [my Boy Scout] look and get a picture with her while I'm in that look."
In a 2020 interview with EW, Bob further revealed that an additional two queens who were eliminated earlier in the competition also brought kimonos that didn't make it to the Night of 1,000 Madonnas runway episode.
"What they didn't show you was that two girls who'd been eliminated also brought kimonos," Bob said. "I think Naysha [Lopez] and Cynthia [Lee Fontaine brought them as well]. We all knew about Kimonogate before Kimonogate, because, once you get in the Werk Room, you're like, 'What did you bring for Madonna.... there were six girls holding up kimonos and I was like, yikes!"
Read more about Bob and Monéts BOMO Beauty line in EW's full interview with the drag icons, before Bob begins Madonna's Celebration tour on July 15.
Subscribe to EW's Quick Drag podcast for recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race, including reactions with the cast, special guests, and more.
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