Being on the cover of Rolling Stone can do a lot of things for you -- provide a huge career boost, sell records (or movie tickets) and introduce you to a new audience. But for "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert, being on this week's cover did something even more important: It liberated him.

Lambert told Us Weekly on Thursday that he had no regrets about finally [article id="1613628"]coming clean about being gay[/article] in the magazine.

The rebel-yelling singer spent most of the season as the subject of an "is he or isn't he?" whisper campaign about his sexuality (which last year's runner-up, [article id="1613835"]David Archuleta[/article], for one, had no questions about). Lambert is overjoyed to finally admit what everyone on the show already knew.

"I'm really happy with it. The cover looks great. It was great working with [photographer] Matthew Rolston," he told Us. "And the title -- 'The Liberation of Adam Lambert' -- I do feel liberated. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders."

In addition to admitting that his "Idol" audition was inspired by a magic-mushroom trip at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert, Lambert, 27, also revealed his [article id="1613792"]crush on winner and roommate Kris Allen[/article].

Lambert told Us that he didn't cop to being an openly gay man on the show because he didn't want to create a distraction. He said he felt it would be "so sensationalized that it would overshadow what I was there to do, which was sing." After living openly in Los Angeles for eight years, Lambert said, "It's not like I was holding back before. ... I was being myself, but it's nice to have everything out in the open."

Now, with those secrets revealed, Lambert told Rolling Stone he's excited to begin working on [article id="1613513"]his debut album[/article], which he said will be a mixture of his beloved glam rock with some electronic and rock touches.

"I can see myself probably doing a little bit of everything," he said in a video of his RS cover shoot. "A rock/pop sound with really strong hooks with, like, a glam edge to it and a lot of modern production -- a dance-y electronic treatment on everything to make it sound current and futuristic. We kind of just started. We're at the drawing board. We're trying to figure out what kind of sound we want, what kind of producers we want to work with. Right now, it's all just ideas, nothing's really started yet. So it's really exciting, because anything can happen."

Get your "Idol" fix on MTV News' [article id="1486475"]"American Idol" page[/article], where you'll find all the latest news, interviews and opinions.