Q&A with Drag Headliner Ginger Minj

By Jane R. LeBlanc, FWB Volunteer

Interview edited for length. 

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Star, recording artist, and self-proclaimed Glamour Toad Ginger Minj delivered insights and inspiration before heading to Denton for We Denton Drag It. She speaks about stumbling into drag on accident, successfully fusing the worlds of drag and country music, and offering a queer perspective on beloved pop culture classics. 

Thank you so much for joining me. We're super excited to have you at We Denton Drag It this year. 

Oh, I'm so excited to be had!

So let's go ahead and dive right in. When did you know that you wanted to be a drag performer?

You know, I don't know to this day that I want to be a drag performer. (laughs) I want to be everything. I'm a theater kid. So I have that natural instinct to kind of go to whatever seems exciting. And honestly, that's what drew me to drag, because you can be anything in drag and you can do anything in drag, and that's why it is the most perfect job for me, even if I came into it by accident. 

“I can kind of do all of the things I wanted to do just because of drag.”

How did you come into it by accident?

Through theater. I grew up doing theater and eventually I just ran out of roles that were available to me in my little community. There was this brand new play called Boys! Boys! Boys!, which isn't as exciting as the title may seem. And it wanted like, eight naked men or two drag queens. And I was like, my mother will cut me out of the will forever if I get naked on stage, so I guess I'll do drag!

And I did it not really knowing anything about the world, but I’m the type of actor that I kind of dive into every opportunity, and I just fell in love with it. And I really realized, oh I can kind of do all of the things I wanted to do just because of drag.

So speaking of, you've been on RuPaul's Drag Race three times now. What's it like being on such a widely loved show? 

It's wonderful! I mean, it has its detractors. But I kind of look at that as a sign of success, because at least you're invested enough in what I'm doing to have an opinion either way. It used to really bother me, but I've learned to just appreciate every facet of it, including the haters. But the good definitely has always outweighed the bad.

You know, I always wanted to be in movies and be on stage and do music videos and albums and all these kinds of things. And I've gotten the opportunity to do that because of Drag Race.

“There's something about releasing it all out into the world that just lightens your soul so much.”

Speaking of albums, you've made several over the years. They range from pop all the way to country. Can you talk a little bit about your writing and recording process with those?

So my first album, Sweet T, came out right at the end of season 7, and I learned so much about me. I learned that I wasn't okay on the inside, but I also learned that it was okay that I wasn't okay, that I was a little bit broken. Because everybody in the world who's had any kind of experiences, good or bad, there's gonna be a lot of baggage that comes with it.

I went through decades of journals and diaries and letters that I had written and worked with my songwriting team to translate that into music. And it was the most cathartic, therapeutic experience I've ever been through. There's something about releasing it all out into the world that just lightens your soul so much.

So I call that my “Adele album.” That is the one that's full of emotions. The second one, Gummy Bear, I worked on it longer than I've worked on any of my other albums, because I collected the songs over a period of like four or five years. I wanted it to be fun.

I recorded that first album, it was so sad, and I loved it so much. But I got to the clubs, and I was like, I can't sing these songs at one o'clock in the morning for a crowd that wants to party. (laughs)

So we wrote Gummy Bear based around that concept of just throwing a party and having a good time.

“If there's ever two worlds that are completely on opposite ends, it would be the drag world and the country music world.”

And then Double Wide Diva, my third album, came out at the end of All Stars 6, and it's the one that I'm most proud of. I feel like it's the one that is most authentically me.

I grew up [in a] little Southern Baptist town very, very, very into country music, whether I wanted to be or not. It was just kind of all the music that was around. I rebelled against it for so many years after I got out of Lake County because it just reminded me so much of my childhood and all the trauma there, you know.

I started to get back into it a little bit in my thirties, and I realized: I want to sing this music, but I feel like if there's ever two worlds that are completely on opposite ends, it would be the drag world and the country music world. But I figured I've done everything else. I might as well just take the chance, and I did it. And everybody responded so well to it. They loved it so much because it really was just for the first time, 100% authentically who I am.

Yeah, you can really tell. There's a lot of heart in that album. What would you say your personal favorite song to perform is?

My personal favorite song to perform is not even my song. It's “I Am What I Am” from La Cage aux Folles. I saw the movie The Birdcage first, which is based on the Broadway musical, La Cage aux Folles. And because I was in theater, somebody told me, “Hey you do realize this is based on a play? Here's the soundtrack. Here's the script. You should learn this.” And I learned it, and I loved it, and that song is just such a universal message of loving yourself that it was the only thing that got me through sometimes when I was younger. So I started putting it into my concerts, and people responded to it. It's one that I think, ‘til the day I stop breathing, is going to be the one that I'm singing the most.

“You know what, let's reexamine all of these classics that we grew up with through more of a queer lens.”

To round out 2022, you'll be reprising some of your several iconic roles that you play on stage with a drag twist. I saw The Munsterz Live, Hocus Pocus Halloween Bash and, my personal favorite, The Golden Gals. Can you talk a little bit about playing iconic characters with that drag slant?

Yeah, well I think it all kind of goes back to the Snatch Game on Drag Race. People get so caught up in the actual looking and sounding like and being a character that they forget to have fun with it, and I think that that's why I've had so much success on Snatch Game. I've won it twice, and it's because you're just trying to take the essence of who this character is and make it fun. 

My best friend Gidget, my husband, and myself, we had a chunk of time in our schedule a couple of years ago, and we were like, you know what? We love The Golden Girls, we watch it every single day. I'm definitely a Blanche. You’re a Rose. This girl's this, that girl’s that. Why don't we just throw it together, do a quick little loving parody? We thought we'd do it once and nobody would care.

We put the tickets on sale. We completely sold out. We've sold out every performance and we've done, gosh, hundreds of performances over the last five years. And then we said, you know what, let's reexamine all of these classics that we grew up with through more of a queer lens.

We don't necessarily make the scripts queer, but we obviously live our lives from a little bit of a different perspective, and that kind of informs who we are and what we do. We always try to make it so that the overall message is definitely from our perspective. While having fun!

“Don't be afraid to give yourself to the world.”

With everything going on in the world today, it can be a little bit hard to have fun. Do you have some words of inspiration for the queer community in general?

Yeah! Well, go listen to “I Am What I Am”, because everybody should know that song, feel that song, love that song. And the basic gist of it all is that you are who you are. There's nobody else in the world that is anything like you, and what you have to offer is so special. 

Sometimes we are too close to our own selves to realize the specialness that comes from within us, for what we have to offer the rest of the world, and we have to stop and we have to remind ourselves that it is enough. It's perfect, it's beautiful, and it's exactly what the world needs from us.

So just don't be afraid to give yourself to the world. 

Thank you so much for that for those inspiring words. I think they're really important, especially today. And like I said at the very beginning, we're so excited to have you join us this year. What are you most looking forward to about We Denton Drag It? 

Well, you know, I have never been to Denton, Texas, in my life, and it's actually like the third time I've been booked there. But something's always come up, so I've never been able to go. So I'm actually very excited to finally get there and to meet all the people from there that I've been talking to on the internet for years.

We're just gonna have fun. We're gonna have a good time. 

We couldn't be more excited to have you, and thankfully you'll make it out this time!

Yes, yes. Even if I have to drive the plane myself! Do you drive a plane? You’ll fly it. I’ll fly it. 

You can follow Ginger on Instagram at @GingerMinj, on Twitter at @TheGingerMinj, and on TikTok at @TheGingerMinj.

We Denton Drag It is Saturday, September 17th at Harvest House in Denton, TX. Tickets are available here.