Clay Aiken may be belting out romantic cover tunes on his new album, but he's taking a decidedly more buttoned-up approach to the long-bubbling rumors about his personal life.

In a sit-down with People to promote his just released CD, "A Thousand Different Ways," the "American Idol" runner-up-turned-Claymate-worshiped crooner sidesteps speculation surrounding his sexuality.

"What do you say [to that question]?" responds Aiken. "It's like when I was 8. I remember something would get broken in the house, and Mom and Dad would call me in and say, 'Did you do this?' Well, it didn't matter what I said. The only thing they would believe was yes. ... People are going to believe what they want."

The mop-topped singer, 27, who earlier this year was the subject of an unsavory National Enquirer exposé, takes a similarly nonspecific approach when questioned by the AP, explaining, "The people who know me, know me. I don't really feel like I have anybody to answer to but myself and God and the people I love."

Aiken is more forthcoming about how he suffered from post-"Idol" panic attacks, telling People they left him feeling "like I was going to have a heart attack."

Although he nixed therapy ("Everybody who I know in L.A. goes to see somebody," he told Diane Sawyer this week. "I mean, I don't want to do that."), he did agree to try the antidepressant Paxil (no word on whether he's gotten an earful from Tom Cruise about this pill-popping decision).

"Now I can sit here," Clay says of the drug's effects. "I can go into a store; I can handle a photo shoot. I'm able to get rid of all that stuff in the periphery. It makes everything easier."

As for the future, "I want to be a father so badly," he enthuses to the mag. "I want [kids] one day. Not now ... I would love to adopt."

Conveniently enough, "There's an orphanage not too far from my house, and I've been up before with church," Clay reveals. "I thought, 'What happens to those kids who have the potential to go to college but just can't afford it?' I've been thinking a lot lately about finding a way to pay for one of those kids to go to college."