The Struts’ Luke Spiller on His Fabulous Glam Style: ‘I’m Practically a Cross-Dresser’

Sitting on his tour bus at the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience before his band plays a 2 p.m. set, Luke Spiller, flamboyant frontman for fabulous rock ‘n’ roll Brit brigade the Struts, hardly looks properly outfitted for the sweltering New Orleans heat. He’s sporting a full face of meticulously applied Nagel-painting makeup, non-breathable leather trousers, and, most amazingly, a shaggy emerald-green tunic that looks like it was fashioned from the silky pelts of Oscar the Grouch puppets – or maybe from mermaid hair. But Spiller, one of the most exciting and electric performers in rock today, just shrugs. “If I if don’t sweat perpetually, then I haven’t done my job,” he asserts. “I always aim to excessively sweat at every show.”

(photo: Getty Images)

One would expect no less from a dandy Englishman who once commissioned famed Freddie Mercury/Marc Bolan designer Zandra Rhodes to create his sparkly stage outfits and whose band made their U.S. concert debut during New York Fashion Week. Speaking about his androgynously over-the-top, dress-to-excess style, he says: “I’ve got a taste I can’t really define. I know I’m really influenced by ‘70s glam rock – the British movement that happened with Bowie and Marc Bolan, etc. I just like what I like. I’m practically a cross-dresser. I don’t really wear any men’s clothing – apart from my underpants, as you say in the States.”