'American Idol' runner-up releases new album

If the measure of a man is his sexual orientation, then Clay Aiken refuses to be sized up.

The "American Idol" runner-up, who's making the rounds promoting his latest album, proved to be a slippery fish in a People interview in which he addressed the persistent rumors that he's gay.

"What do you say [to that question]?" says Aiken, who's now sporting longer, darker hair. "It's like when I was 8. I remember something would get broken in the house, and Mom and Dad would call me in and say, 'Did you do this?' Well, it didn't matter what I said. The only thing they would believe was yes ... People are going to believe what they want."

In a 2003 Rolling Stone interview, Aiken stated that he wasn't gay, but since then, his alleged homosexuality has become fodder for jokes in the entertainment media and rampant speculation in the tabloids. Earlier this year, The National Enquirer even claimed it had proof that he had a liason with another man.

Aiken, 27, views stories like this as a learning experience.

"I'm becoming a man, not just with my hair, but with my life," he says. "This year's been an education: the education of Clay. I learned this year that you can't make people like you or care about you or love you"

Aiken also discussed his personal future plans.

"I want to be a father so badly. I want [kids] one day. Not now," he says. "I would love to adopt. There's an orphanage not too far from my house, and I've been up before with church. I always thought, 'What happens to those kids who have the potential to go to college but just can't afford it?' I've been thinking a lot lately about finding a way to pay for one of those kids to go to college."

The popular singer also suffers from panic attacks, which first began when his stepfather died in 2002 and continued through his "American Idol" experience.

"I'd walk into a room and say to myself, 'I am not going to have a problem when these people stare at me,'" he recalls. "But then [in] that situation, my heart would start pumping, and I'd start sweating and looking around nervously and shaking. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack."

Since then, he's been taking the anti-anxiety drug Paxil.

"I said [to my doctor], 'Listen, I don't want to go to a therapist. I have nothing against therapists. I want to think I can do this on my own,'" he explains. "And she recommended that I try a medication. ... Now I can sit here; I can go into a store; I can handle a photo shoot. I'm able to get rid of all that stuff in the periphery. It makes everything easier."

The full People interview can be found on newstands Friday, Sept. 22. Aiken addresses many of the same issues on ABC's "Good Morning America" the day before.

Aiken's 2003 debut album, "Measure of a Man," sold 2.6 million copies. His fourth album, "A Thousand Different Ways," drops on Tuesday, Sept. 26.