So how has that shaped who Billy is today?

We all really have to live our lives every day like it's the last, like for real.

Because I have lived my life to the best of my ability, and I'm still gagged that I'm four years away from 60.

And I'm proud of my age.

I lived.

I'm here.

Like, that was not a foregone conclusion.

The two remain close, and Jerry regularly hosts Billy at his home in the Pines, where they've even staged a more intimate Fire Island edition of Broadway Bears.

Billy Porter remembers the first DJs he saw after arriving in New York.

Junior Vasquez is the one that comes that's seared.

I mean, C&C, Clavelis and Colt, when I got here, were still alive.

And they were DJing a bit still, even though they were record producers.

But Junior was the biggest one.

You know, if Madonna calls when he fell out with Madonna, I'm not here.

I'm not here.

is no small role.

You know, Elban...

It's part of your dream.

Yeah, Elban is a role that I've been wanting to play since I was too young to play it.

Uh-huh.

La Cage a Faux, for those of you who don't know, is essentially the birdcage.

Yes.

You have a new lease on life?

Mm.

And way before I believed that they should have been finished.

I also lived through the AIDS crisis.

I'm 56 years old.

You know, I came out in 1985, and we went straight to the front lines to fight for our lives.

I've had a lot of loss in my life at very early ages, and I am so grateful [monitor beeping] to be alive, and that is my diabetes monitor-

Mm-hmm.

"Oh, you're going to hell." The same old...

Is there anything that you're, like, bad at? [laughs]

Yes, a lot of stuff.

I can't draw, I can't play the piano.

I, that's my biggest dream.

I think it's wh- it's God's way of making sure I stay humble.

If I could sit down and play the piano for myself while I sang-

[laughs]

[laughs] And it creates a, a conversation subversively.