He was the editor of New York's 'HX' magazine, a writer for the 'Advocate' and has interviewed virtually every celeb on the planet - oh, and he's pretty damn cute, too! lol Now Brandon Voss was kind enough to take the time and sit down for the MUZOPHILE interview.

The sexy journo talks up everything from the latest hot celebs (which ones are cool - and which ones not so much) and his cat fight with Janice Dickinson to how many dicks he's seen on the scene and more. Big thanks to Mikey for making taking the time to make this happen! Lets get to it:

*****

M: Many of us started to notice you as editor of the famed NYC magazine, 'HX.' How did you enter into the arena of celebrity journalism?

B: If you don’t count my high school magazine, 'The Halo,' 'HX' was my first magazine job. I was a theater major with a focus on secondary education at Tulane University, but I’d lost all interest in acting and teaching when I moved to New York in 2004. I’d been coming up for Broadway weekends since 1997, and the first thing I’d do was pick up an 'HX' at 'The Duplex.' It was like my gay Bible. I didn’t know what I was doing with my life when I finally moved, but when I saw an ad on craigslist for a receptionist at HX, I took it. Awful pay, miserable job, but I had my eye in everybody’s business and begged for writing assignments. In a few months, I got promoted to editorial assistant. A few months later, I was features editor. I started doing celebrity interviews for 'The Advocate' on the side, and before I knew it I was editor-in-chief of 'HX.' And no matter what anyone says, I didn’t have to sleep with anyone! I learned so much from Matthew Bank, the founder and CEO, and I’ll always be grateful for the experience and the free drink tickets.

*****

M: HX recently was bought out by 'Next Magazine,' bringing a certain era of nightlife to an end, at least for those of us that remember the inception of 'HX.' Tell me about the transition. Where do you see it going?

B: Who cares? New York City nightlife is dead. Kidding! Yeah, 'HX' started back in 1991, and it’s sad that an institution I gave four years of my life to isn’t around anymore. I’m just glad I left when I did so I didn’t get the 'clean out your desk and go home' speech that surely came as a shock to some people. Considering how much info is available on the Internet now, did we still need two gay nightlife rags? Maybe not. Did I think 'HX' would die first and so soon? No. But a lot happened over there in the months after I left. It’s just a shame that 'Next' is the only one now, because that rivalry was key to the success of both publications. When 'Next' was on its game, it would definitely make me bring my A-game and aim for hotter guys, bigger celebs and greater national exposure for 'HX.' Without 'Next,' I probably would’ve just put a different drag queen on the cover every week, because they usually have lots of pictures and like to do their interviews via email.

*****

M: Ok, tell me your craziest 'HX' experience.

B: When we were down in Chelsea, the office environment itself was crazier than any of the interviews. Pushy party promoters would come in, tweaking, still up from the night before, demanding articles on their tired parties. Drag queens would stumble in and steal review copies of books and CDs off the shelves. Some weird guy went around offering everyone free neck massages as payment for an ad in the classified section. But I’ll always remember when the escorts from the back of the magazine would come in to pay for or set up their ads. No one looked like his picture, and there’d be a guy named Carlos who escorted as Juan and a guy named Juan who went by Carlos. It was so confusing and hilarious and tragic.

*****

M: You were one of the first publications to break Lady GaGa as such an up-and-coming artist. You actually had the first cover story! Tell me about that...

B: Yeah, I’m pretty proud that I popped her cover cherry in summer 2008 and that the interview just happened to be geared to her gay fans. She totally admitted to being bisexual and talked about being girl-crazy, but her album wasn’t out yet and 'Just Dance' was still climbing the charts, so no one but Perez and a few LGBT blogs gave a crap. When she said the same stuff in 'Rolling Stone' months later, it blew people’s fucking minds! It doesn’t help matters that the HX online archives have now vanished, so the only proof of these interviews is in print and the snippets copied online on various blogs. I saved all my old 'HX' issues, though, so trust that one of these days I’m going to scan all that crap and put it on an obnoxiously self-promoting website.

*****

M: Writing for 'The Advocate' gives you a national platform for your writing. How does it feel knowing that your words are read by millions of people?

B: You know, I totally forget about that when I’m doing an interview. It sounds cheesy, but I really get lost in the conversation or in trying to make my subject loosen up with fun questions they’ve never gotten before. I remember hanging up the phone after talking to Chris Evans for my 'A-List' column and feeling like I’d just gotten home from a great date where the guy laughed at all my jokes and told me I was pretty. To me, we were just shooting the shit about his younger gay brother. Then a month later the interview went up online and it was literally all over cyberspace. It seemed like every blog was talking about it and reposting those infamous beefcake pictures of Chris, and the interview wound up being the most visited story for the month on Advocate.com. So it’s a little weird if I think about it too much, but it definitely makes me work harder to get good, juicy stuff out of celebs who aren’t always as game as Chris was to open up. But speaking of Chris’s gay brother Scott, who’s a soap star, I recently read on Facebook how some dude with cerebral palsy had written him asking for pics of his bare feet. Now that’s fame.

*****

M: Ok, going to play a little 'Inside The Actors' Studio' (the journalism version).

B: You’re much better looking than James Lipton, but go for it.

M: Favorite interview?

B: God, I almost died when I got to spend 30 minutes alone with Paris Hilton on a couch in the Ritz Carlton on Central Park. But my very first 'Big Gay Following' interview, which is what 'A-List' used to be called, was with Cameron Diaz in 2006. It wasn’t long after Lance Bass had come out, and the other 'N Syncers—including Justin Timberlake, Cammy’s boyfriend at the time—had all been asked by the press to give their two cents on it. So I asked her, 'If you ever came out of the closet, what would Charlie’s other Angels say?' She was laughing so hard she had to put the phone down so she could repeat the question to her entourage. That’s when I was kind of like, 'Wow, maybe I’m not too bad at this job.'

*****

M: Least favorite interview?

B: I know I should be diplomatic and say something like, 'They’re all like my children, so how could I choose?' But one night I had to follow Alan Cumming and his entourage around town for an 'HX' cover story to promote 'Threepenny Opera.' He was surrounded by so many ass-kissers, I barely got to talk to him, and I got the feeling he really didn’t want me there. At the end of the night I asked if I could take a picture with him for my personal scrapbook. He actually said, 'No.' No explanation. Just didn’t want to. Mind you, this was a cover and six-page spread I was doing for a show that was just awful. So then I had to email him some follow-up questions, and he got all bent out of shape because I asked something about Madonna’s babydaddy Carlos Leon being in the show with him. There’s nothing worse than a rich queen who takes himself too seriously. Google my interview with Jeffrey Kalinsky for proof.

*****

M: Best question you ever asked a celebrity?

B: The cornier the better. Like, I once asked Alanis Morissette, 'If you had one hand in your pocket, what would the other one ideally be doing?' But as far as good exposure goes, when I talked to Denis Leary about a chapter in his book called 'Matt Dillon is a Giant Fag,' I asked, 'What gives you the right to use the f-word?' It seemed like an obvious question to me, but then the interview got all this attention in mainstream outlets like 'Page Six' and the Huffington Post. Our conversation was actually very chill and fun, but the blogs were saying stuff like 'Brandon Voss took Leary to task' and 'Voss demanded answers and put Leary on the defensive.' I felt like Diane Sawyer for a day and a half. 

*****

M: Best answer you ever got to a question?

B: My first cover story for 'The Advocate' was on the dreamy Cheyenne Jackson when he was in Broadway’s 'Xanadu.' We grabbed dinner at Sardi’s after the show one night and I asked him when he first realized he was gay. He said he’d never talked about it before, but when he was seven years old he used to get a little boner while watching a 'Popeye' cartoon episode where Popeye’s tied up and gets his bare feet tickled by Brutus. I wasn’t expecting the answer to be so candid and colorful! Of course, all the foot fetish pervs went nuts on the blogs when the issue came out.

*****

M: I heard a rumor about you and Janice Dickinson and some name-calling? Do tell.

B: I love that hot mess. I spoke to her by phone for an 'HX' cover when her reality show debuted in 2006. At one point she told me to keep my 'filthy faggot hands' off her hot son, but I didn’t take that personally. Then when I asked her if, in her expert opinion, she thought Ashlee Simpson had really just gotten a nose job, she called me an asshole for asking such a stupid question and hung up on me! It’s still a highlight of my career. Of course, I left that part in the interview, hang-up 'click' and all. A couple of weeks later she and I were both at the show’s New York premiere party at therapy. Copies of the issue were spread out all over the tables, so I’m sure she at least skimmed it. When someone finally introduced us, she yelled, 'You bitch!' and gave me a big hug before autographing an issue for me. When I interviewed her for another cover story in 2008, we were best buds! She thanked me for my support, said I was a good journalist and told me to keep up the good work. I thought was having a mild stroke. 

*****

M: 'Seat Filler' is your new column for Advocate.com. Tell me about that.

B: I used to review theater for the 'Drama Queen' column in HX, but that gig ended, of course. So now I write a monthly column about New York theater for Advocate.com. It focuses on gay shows, gay stars and gay storylines. In addition to Broadway, I cover a lot of one-night theater benefits or very limited-run off-Broadway stuff, so it’s not like I’m telling people what to see when they come to town. I think of myself more as a show queen on the scene for gays who can’t make it to the city or can’t afford tickets. Next month I’m going to brave as many gay-themed Fringe Festival shows I possibly can in two weeks, and I’m sure all I’ll wind up writing about is how many dicks I saw.

***** 

M: If you weren't a writer, what would you be doing?

B: I’d be one of Kathy Griffin’s assistants. I mean, Tiffany just laughs all the time and follows Kathy on her adventures, but Kathy might be running her ragged because Tiffany’s lost so much weight this season. I’d just love to be the sassy gay personal assistant for any fun celeb. Just for a year or two. Paula Deen’s gay assistant Brandon is a trip. But have you seen Giuliana Rancic’s cute gay assistant Matt Jacobi on her new show 'Guiliana & Bill' on the Style network? So jealous of that bitch!

*****

M: When you get some free time, what could we find you doing?

B: I spent a small fortune on my sofa, so I like to make sure I get the maximum use out of it. I sort of burned out on go-go boys and bottle service when I was at 'HX,' so it takes a really special party or really persuasive friends to pull me back into the scene. I just got back from a week out in Fire Island and I don’t know how I survived without my DVR. 

*****

M: Single or taken?

B: I’m taken, but my boyfriend instructed me to, if asked, only refer to him by his Twitter name. So, yes, @npr1000 is awesome. We’ve been boyfriends and best friends for about a year. We live happily ever after together in Hell’s Kitchen, and we can’t wait until we can get married so we can finally take off these fucking purity rings.

*****

M: What can we expect from you next?

B: I’ve got some hot interviews with some huge divas and major studs coming out real soon. I’m working on a book of humorous, grotesquely self-indulgent personal essays about the men who’ve impacted my life back in my hometown of New Orleans and as I struggled to find my place in the big city. Let’s just say that all names will be changed to protect the guilty. 
 
 

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