American Idol alum Clay Aiken is right up there with Tom Cruise and John Travolta on the list of got-to-be-closeted male celebrities. But now he’s putting those rumors to rest. In an interview with New York magazine, this generation’s Barry Manilow explained that he doesn’t even own a closet, and he wouldn’t know what to keep in it if he did:

He has never had a romantic relationship with anyone, unless you count the girls he took to dances back in high school in Raleigh. “I just don’t have an interest in … any of that at all. I have got too much on my plate,” he says. “I’d rather focus on one thing and do that when I can devote time to it, and right now, I just don’t have any desire.”

The article goes on, just in case the reader has the slightest doubt concerning the status of Aiken’s sexuality:

But Aiken is 29 years old and he is also a human. Surely he must have needs. Urges. He contemplates this in silence for 20 or 30 seconds. “Ah think maybe I don’t! I mean, not really. I’ve just kind of shut it off, maybe. Is that bad?”

If this is in fact true, Clay deserves credit for owning up to a personal sexuality that is none too popular and decidedly uncool. Of course, it might not be completely true. Still, it’s probably just as well that Clay is currently appearing in Spamalot as Sir Robin, not Sir Galahad. From the sound of things, he’d have no problem at all with clearing out of Castle Anthrax.