"I wrote a book so I have to put glasses on."

The one and only Alaska Thunderfuck, winner of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 2, spills all the tea about her brand new memoir, My Name’s Yours, What’s Alaska in our exclusive interview.

"Trend alert, literacy," she jokes, no offense to the illiterate of course. "We're doing an audiobook version too, so..."

In the brand new novel, Alaska combs through the ups and downs of her life that predated her rise into the spotlight, including her coming out, reigning as her high school prom king, the fateful San Francisco Drag show that changed her life, her relationship with Sharon Needles, how it felt to initially be rejected from RuPaul's Drag Race, finally getting on, and even behind-the-scenes memories from the show. 

Clearly, she's not holding back, oh at all. 

PRIDE: Was writing a book something you've always wanted to do? How did it come about? 

Yes, I've always wanted to do it because it was like, and I think I said it on season five of Drag Race. RuPaul asked me "What are your goals?" And I was like the book, the movie and the made for TV movie. So we got one ding, dang, dong.

The journey of going and actually doing it turns out to be a lot of work. Writers, I have so much respect for writers. I think they're so great, It's very hard. But we did it and we really went there and we did it, so I'm glad.

What's do you talk about in the memoir? Drag Race? Sharon? Any tea you can tease?

It's pretty much everything that has happened in my life up to now. We start at my very young childhood getting into my mom's stuff that I wasn't supposed to get into. You couldn't keep me out of drag even as a child. 

The most exciting part for me is talking about my early days when I first started drag and it was before RuPaul's Drag Race even existed. And so the sort of urge to do it, even though there was no path, there was no viable career choice for doing drag. That's really exciting to me and those years of figuring out what works, what does not work, you know, making mistakes, learning from them, that's exciting to me.

What are you most excited for people to read?

I love the Blue Moon. They call themselves everyone's bar and they're in Pittsburgh and they're still there and it's still an amazing place to go and see drag that you're not gonna see anywhere else. And that's such a really special time in my life because it was like a training ground and it existed in a time where drag was really uncharted territory and it still is. Those memories are really special to me and I love those girls so much.

What inspired your new song "Red", not at all related to the Taylor Swift album? It feels very 2000s pop-inspired, like it could be on the Mean Girls soundtrack, which is a departure from your previous stuff.

I'm always so thrilled when people say that it sounds like the early 2000's or the late 90's- - I'm like, yes, we did it because that's what we wanted. and there's more music coming. So this whole project Red 4 Filth and it's the number four because it's my fourth solo album. 

Red 4 Filth, the whole music project is very based on the 90's and 2000's because that's when I first fell in love with music. And it was like No Doubt and Ace of Base and Toni Braxton I had these physical CDs that I would just play over and over and over. And it's when I fell in love with music, so it's very like, it's red in a sense of everything must be red, just because I love a theme, and it makes shopping way easier. But also red is the color of love and passion and the heart. And so it's like my love of music, but also we're talking about love and friendship and relationships. Usually in the past, I've done music that's about eye lashes and wigs and nails, and that's great. But we're really going into new territory, I really love the music.

Buy My Name’s Yours, What’s Alaska? here. Alaska is going on tour this fall. Watch our full interview with her below: