“Ben is my heterosexual musical life partner,” Jackson exclaims. He’s also performing a song written by his music director, Ben Toth, based on a poem by Sylvia Plath. It’s a personal song, but it has a Chet Baker/Billie Holiday feel and it’s about pain and longing.” I’m also doing a song called ‘Red Wine Is Good for My Heart,’ which is something my grandma used to say. “‘Angel Eyes,’ I love the melody and the melancholy feel. “I’m doing an Amy Winehouse song, which isn’t of the period but has that vibe,” he says. In spite of the title, Jackson’s show promises to be eclectic. It’s a struggle every day how much to say and how much not to say. I feel like in a show setting, there isn’t really anything that’s off limits. It’s gotten me in trouble talking too much about my personal life. How much does he reveal about himself in his shows? “It’s difficult for me, because I’m very, very open. I keep all these things in mind when I put together a show.” “I don’t like to go to concerts, even if they are really talented people I look up to, if it becomes just a recital. “I like to give the audience some of what they want, but I’m a firm believer in giving them what they need-even if they don’t know they need it,” he says. Since Mad Men isn’t a musical, Jackson had to put together the show based on both his own passion for the material and his desire to create a memorable production that reveals more of who he is. My dad always had Elvis and Roy Orbison playing. “I was obsessed with Chet Baker and that vibe. “I think it started in high school when my teacher said ‘You were born in the wrong era because your voice was suited for the American songbook of the 1950s,'” Jackson says. This throwback approach was the first we thing discussed. This Saturday he’ll be singing Music of the Mad Men Era in his solo concert debut at Disney Hall. He later appeared in a revival of Finian’s Rainbow, a show that first appeared on Broadway in the late 1940s. He first came to fame in All Shook Up, a musical using Elvis Presley’s songs. There’s something about the decades well before his birth that keep hovering over Cheyenne Jackson.