Ugly Sweater on “The Masked Singer” wants to work with Taylor Swift next 'to see what that's like'

Plus, the Dr. Dre collab that almost happened.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Masked Singer, season 11, episode 7, "Queen Night."

The Ugly Sweater was unraveled on The Masked Singer stage on Wednesday.

The episode was Queen Night (as in the band Queen), and it also happened to be the Group A finals. Despite giving one of his best performances yet, the colorful threads known as Ugly Sweater was sent home first in the double elimination episode, unfortunately missing his chance to join Poodle Moth and Clock in the Final Four.

Guesses for his identity ranged from Al Green, to Aaron Neville, to Smokey Robinson, but in the end, it was only Robin Thicke who correctly called it: Ugly Sweater was unmasked to reveal 13-time Grammy-nominated R&B singer, Charlie Wilson.

Ahead, EW spoke with the former lead singer of the Gap Band about celebrating 50 years in the music industry, why T-Pain inspired him to do The Masked Singer, and why he wants to add Taylor Swift to his long list of collaborators.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You've had a busy 2024 so far — you just performed at Coachella and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Why did you want to add The Masked Singer to the mix?

CHARLIE WILSON: Well, it is fun. I've seen one of the seasons when T-Pain won it, and I just had to be a part of it. One day I was like, if T-Pain can do that, I know I can do that. So I was so happy for him and it was so much fun watching it. I didn't really recognize his voice either without the autotune on it, but he just did the thing and it was incredible. And from that moment on, I wanted to be a part of Masked Singer.

Did it live up to what you thought it would be?

I was so excited, except for when I opened my mouth the very first time I started singing and Robin Thicke said, "That's Charlie Wilson." I was like, aw man, let me sing a few more times. When he was just saying, "Nope, nope, that's Charlie Wilson. I studied his voice. I know what his voice sounds like. I've been studying him since I was a kid." So I was listening. I never said nothing. They disguised my voice when I talked to the judges, but he kept saying, "I know that's Charlie Wilson." And I thought that was kind of cool that he did know my voice, but [my disguise] was short lived. [Laughs]

It's your 50th anniversary in the music industry, which is amazing. If you could go back to the beginning and tell yourself anything, what would you tell yourself? 

I would tell myself, self, you don't have anything to worry about. You just need to go forward. Don't look back at anything that ever happened that you thought was wrong, but to go forward, because your blessings are ahead of you.

Does it feel real to you? Everything you've accomplished in that time?

It is quite different. I mean, it's amazing, and it is almost like scary sometimes because you hear people say things to me, and I don't know if it's real. Because I'm like, man, why is everybody patting me on the back when they don't really, really mean that? Sometimes I think like that, and I shouldn't think like that because people are being genuine for the most part, maybe not all of them, but a lot of them are genuinely happy for me. And I just got to understand that that's what it is, and just keep on going.

One of the big clues for you on The Masked Singer was about all of the artists you've collaborated with or the many records you have featured on. Who is someone you haven't worked with yet that you want to?

Well, I always wanted to work with Gladys Knight, with Patti LaBelle, and I always used to want to work with Whitney Houston, but she passed on. A lot of people kept me away from those people. And some of the superstars, a lot of them died before I could get a chance to work with them. But I'm still here. And as I look around now, I could start naming some names, but again, that would sound maybe not real. People say who you would like to work with now, but Taylor Swift would be one of the ones I would like to work with to see what that's like. But it's all good. I could have worked with Dr. Dre, but I had COVID and I didn't get a chance to go at all. And we tried to call him back to let him know what was wrong with me. And I never got an answer from the guy that was talking for him during that time. So I never did get a chance to talk to Dre about it at all and I didn't get a chance to work with him. And there's a lot of people I would like to work with, but I can't sit and just name names. I can't remember everybody, anyway, now. I got to keep going and I'm not looking back. If they want to work with me, they know how to get ahold of me now.

What are you working on now that you're excited about?

I'm excited about having a top five record. My record, "Superman," it is in the top 5 [Billboard Adult R&B Chart] this week, and I'm so happy and so glad about that. So here we are.

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