Jake Shears, 47, is an American singer, songwriter and actor, best known as the co-lead vocalist of Scissor Sisters, the pop band he formed with backing vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Babydaddy in 2000. The band hail from New York, with their self-titled debut album, featuring “Take Your Mama” and “Filthy/Gorgeous”, going to number one after a breakout Glastonbury performance in 2004. “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’”, co-written with Elton John, topped the Top 40 in 2026.
Shears made his Broadway debut in Kinky Boots in 2018. He toured with Kylie Minogue in 2019, appeared on The Masked Singer in 2020, and starred in Cabaretin the West End from 2023 to 2024. Here, he looks back at the moments that shaped him: from a nomadic childhood in the desert, to coming out in the 90s, witnessing 9/11, and getting the band back on the road.
I grew up in an RV. I was born in Mesa, Arizona, and we lived out in the desert, driving around in a motorhome for months at a time – from the West Coast, all the way to the East coast, up to Canada, then back down. We didn’t have a TV, so I would bring in piles of books. I was always reading and writing weird little stories. I still do. I finished a novel last New Year’s Eve, and I wrote a book last year – a real messy one.
