LISTEN: Billy Porter Talks Broadway, New Record Deal & More on 100.7 Star

Billy Porter joined high school friend Bubba on 100.7 Star this afternoon as he gears up to receive an honorary doctorate degree from Carnegie Mellon University, and will attend The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books to promote his memoir 'Unprotected'.

He also talked about Pose, Kinky Books, directorial debut movie, his high school and university experience, healing trauma to feel joy, fashion, Broadway, new Top 40 music, and more.

Listen below!

"'Kinky Boots' was returning to the original dream. The original dream at 11 years old, being introduced to theater, was to be a Broadway star. I got to New York my second semester of senior year and I was in the original cast of 'Miss Saigon', and I did a lot of Broadway. Then real life happened, and you know it's a grind, just trying to find my way, and this was the 80s and the 90s, being a black man, and so I expanded my territory with different interests. Allow myself to always have the dream, and just keep doing the work. So to, at 42, have originated a character in a Broadway musical and winning the Tony and GRAMMY [Awards] for it happened, was the real turning point. It was the turning point in the conversation of the Billy Porter career. The turning point was 'Kinky Boots'...Film and T.V. were still dismissing me. The crossover from theater to television was really hard...Then five years later 'Pose' came out...'Pose' ended up cracking open a space for me that is magical because its on my own terms - my Black, queer boy terms. Which was something I didn't think was possible." -Billy Porter