A 19-year-old “American Idol” contestant’s first kiss with Katy Perry was far from a teenage dream.
The pop star — currently moonlighting as an “Idol” judge — locked lips with contestant Benjamin Glaze during his audition after he admitted he’d never been kissed — and now the troubadour says he really wishes she hadn’t.
“I was a tad bit uncomfortable,” Glaze told the New York Times. “I wanted to save it for my first relationship. I wanted it to be special.”
The Oklahoma native had made it clear that he was a kissing virgin by choice during his audition, telling the judges that he was holding out on his first smooch until he was dating someone special.
But “Teenage Dream” singer Perry promptly summoned him closer and offered up her cheek.
Glaze willingly obliged, but left the singer disappointed because he didn’t make “the smush sound.”
As he leaned in for round two, Perry swiveled her head at the last second to catch him off-guard with a kiss on the lips.
“Would I have done it if she said, ‘Would you kiss me?’ No, I would have said no,” Glaze said of the moment. “I know a lot of guys would be like, ‘Heck yeah!’ But for me, I was raised in a conservative family and I was uncomfortable immediately. I wanted my first kiss to be special.”
After the Perry peck, she and judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie cheered as Glaze, clearly shocked, staggered back and said, “Katy! You didn’t. Well, that’s a first.”
Glaze then kicked off his audition with “Levels” by Nick Jonas, though it seemed his nerves got the best of him and the judges deemed him unfit for Hollywood.
“I think you were a bit rushed and I think that’s because I sped up your BPM of the heartbeat,” Perry told him.
Months later — and in the wake of movements like #MeToo — Glaze says he doesn’t feel he was sexually harassed by Perry, and has rationalized the kiss by determining it didn’t actually count.
“It was lip contact versus a romantic situation with someone you care about,” he said. “That’s what a real first kiss is.”
(Excerpt) Read More in: NY Daily News