While some are hailing Adam Lambert's sexually charged American Music Awards performance as groundbreaking and others are dismissing it as vulgar, the singer admits he got carried away but will not apologize for his act.

Lambert couldn't avoid discussing the controversy when he appeared on CBS's The Early Show Wednesday to perform two songs from his new album, which was released Monday.

During an interview, Lambert admitted that he did not include some of the more sexually explicit elements of his performance during his rehearsal, which upset host network ABC.

"I admit I did get carried away, but I don't see anything wrong with it," he said. "I do see how people got offended and that was not my intention. My intention was to interpret the lyrics of my song and have a good time with it."

While performing his song "For Your Entertainment," Lambert kissed a male keyboard player, grabbed a female dancer's legs, led other dances around on leashes and had another dancer simulate oral sex on him.

The network edited some of the more sexually graphic acts from the show's West Coast feed, but left in the kiss.

On Monday, ABC said it received 1,500 complaints about the performance, which led its morning show, Good Morning America, to cancel Lambert's previously scheduled Wednesday appearance.

Lambert, the runner-up on American Idol's eighth season earlier this year, said his performance is only deemed controversial because he is an openly gay man. He pointed to other parts of the show that could be considered inappropriate but were not edited and have not sparked an outcry.

Lady Gaga smashed bottles of whiskey as she sang, Eminem rapped about rape and Janet Jackson groped a male dancer, Lambert said.

"Janet Jackson, crotch grab," he said. "I haven't heard one peep about that."

According to Lambert, "if it had been a female pop performer doing (his) moves that were on the stage, I don't think there would be nearly as much of an outrage."

Melissa Henson of the Washington-based Parent Television Council refuted that claim, saying viewers complained en masse after Madonna kissed Britney Spears during the MTV Video Music Awards in 2003 and Janet Jackson exposed her breast during the Super Bowl halftime show in February 2004.

She also dismissed the suggestion that 1,500 complaints out of an estimated 14 million viewers makes for a tame protest.

"I don't think it's correct to so quickly dismiss the concerns of even 1,500 parents," Henson told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday. "After all, the broadcast airwaves are owned by the American viewing public. And so if there are 1,500 people speaking out in protest to something that they've seen on television, I think that's a pretty good barometer that perhaps they've gone too far and perhaps the network needs to be more careful in the future, especially with awards show performances."

Before he began to sing on the Early Show, Lambert, seeming to bow to some of the public pressure, said, "Parents, this is appropriate, I promise."

During his interview, he would not apologize for the performance, and said parents who do not want their kids to see certain images must monitor what their kids view on television.

"I'm not a baby sitter," he said. "I'm a performer."

Matt Mills, editorial director of Pink Triangle Press, a Canadian gay and lesbian media organization, called Lambert's act an "entertaining and innocuous" act of artistic expression.

"I think he was definitely pushing the bounds of societal expectations, and I think that's a very healthy and important thing to do," Mills told Canada AM.

Mills also pointed out that, for fans who got to know him from his time on American Idol, his onstage antics may have been shocking. But it's likely the glam-rock, sexually charged persona is the real Adam Lambert.

"He was contractually obligated by American Idol to behave in a certain way," Mills said. "He showed up at Idol as a young guy just starting out on his career and turned out to be phenomenally successful. Now apparently those obligations to Idol are discharged and we can see the real Adam."

But Henson believes Lambert may have turned off some fans.

"From what I've been reading (online), a lot of people are saying 'I voted for him on American Idol but I was really turned off by this performance,'" Henson said. "So he may be undermining his own career by doing this."