Taylor Dayne 'Didn't Recognize' Herself on RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race : 'That's You, Girl!'

Paul Archuleta/Getty; VH1

Taylor Dayne transformed into Electra Owl on RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race — so much so that she could no longer see herself under her drag persona's glam.

PEOPLE caught up with the "Tell It To My Heart" singer after her lip sync performance of Donna Summer's "Last Dance" coincidentally got her eliminated from the second season of the VH1 reality show.

"I didn't recognize myself," said Dayne, 60, recalling the moment she watched Electra Owl back on the show. "The hair, the makeup, the padding, the costumes, the lighting, the staging — they did a fantastic job. It was only when I smiled at the end that I was like, 'Oh, that's you, girl!' "

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VH1/World of Wonder

That's not to say becoming Electra Owl was easy. Dayne detailed her intense transformation, noting that viewers have no concept of just what it takes to become a drag queen.

"This is not as easy as it seems," she says. "As a woman, sure I'm used to the shoes and dresses, but this was a four-hour procedure daily just to become [Electra]. I'm talking hardcore makeup, hardcore wigs, being taped, glue, pulled, prodded — it was a whole process of creating a look."

"These guys are the best of the best in the business, and they were having a field day with me," adds Dayne. "Every day, it was like, a new thing. 'What about this heel? What about these eyelashes.' Finally they were like, 'We're going to start putting in butt pads and breast pads on you, okay?' And I was like, 'I can't anymore. Whatever you want to do, do it!'"

All that happened before Dayne even took the stage. And though the Grammy nominee has decades of experience singing on stage, RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race was very different.

"I did The Masked Singer and that was different because at least I was singing. It was my voice, my artistic take on songs. This was a whole new experience for me," Dayne says. "There, I had to create a character under an unrealistic shell. Here, I had to create a character while doing these big numbers with all this first-rate, complicated choreography. It was beyond challenging."

"It really was a lot of work," she says. "It was like Glee on crack!"

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Krystalán 

As for whether she'd do it again, Dayne is game but admits she exited the competition at the right time.

"Anyone who was sad to see me go, let me tell you something — you're going to watch these bitches take off their heels and go crazy!" Dayne says, explaining that the male competitors on the show were "really pushing things to the next level."

"For the guys, it's like Halloween. It's the funnest day of their lives. They're so creative, really telling stories with their performance and going balls to the wall. I said to the other girls, 'We gotta move out of the way here, these boys are coming at us hard.' 'Cause me, I was lost. Give me three more episodes, you might have seen more of my potential but these queens? I couldn't keep up."

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The one thing she really won't miss? Being on the other side of the judges' table.

"RuPaul and I have a beautiful relationship. It's lasted 30 years, just incredible. I love that man. That's my family, we talk weekly. But was it fun to be on the other side of his judgment? No! When is it ever fun to be on the other side of a queen's judgment? Never!"

"Drag queens are all very nice, don't get me wrong, but they do me better than I do myself and believe me — they have no problem telling me," Dayne laughs.

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RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on VH1.