When [article id="1627581"]Adam Lambert released his debut album, For Your Entertainment[/article] in November, he was able to best both Rihanna and pal Lady Gaga on the albums chart. But he was still outsold by one other reality show contestant: Susan Boyle.

"I know, if only it weren't for Susan Boyle!" the "American Idol" alum joked in the March issue of the U.K.'s Gay Times magazine "I'm happy for her success, but that album is terrible. [The cover of the Rolling Stones'] 'Wild Horses' is the one that made me laugh the hardest. I just died when I heard it. I was crying with laughter. It was the most horrendous, sacrilegious treatment of that song!"

And though his criticism of Boyle's album sounds harsh, Lambert is more intent on silencing his own critics. "Still, when my album charted, it was validating," he added. "I was feeling bit attacked, like I had to vindicate something. I thought: 'Wow, look what I did.' "

Three months after his [article id="1627074"]American Music Awards performance[/article], Lambert told the magazine that he's still surprised by the public's response to the show. "It catches me off guard," he said. "In my circle, and in a lot of the underground clubs and performance spaces in Los Angeles nobody thinks twice about it, they love it. Then I gave what I thought was a harmless performance and everybody jumps down my throat about it. And I'm like, 'Sorry, I didn't realize it was going to be that big a deal.' "

Lambert also didn't think his glam album cover for For Your Entertainment would be so talked about. "With the soft focus, and the retouching nobody would have said a word [if it was a girl on the cover]," he said. "Here in the States, a lot of people are really uncomfortable with it, which is hilarious."

Earlier this month, [article id="1631989"]Lambert told MTV News[/article] that he was excited to tour overseas, where he thinks his on- and offstage antics won't seem so controversial. "I think the European audiences are generally a little more liberal," he said. "I'm sure there are certain things that I do that won't upset people as much as they do here."