I have to give Details credit – for once, they didn’t make their cover boy up into some kind of James Dean fetishist. Instead, for Matthew Morrison, we get beach porn. And it really is porn – this man has a great body, and he’s not afraid to use it. I think he has an eight-pack. Damn. His hair is still really funky to me, though. It’s very Justin Timberlake circa 2001. Ugh. Anyway, the full Details interview is here (it‘s sweet – Morrison goes back to his old high school), and here is the full slideshow. Here are some highlights from the interview:

On his childhood: For years there were rumors that Morrison was the grandson of John Wayne (né Marion Morrison), and beyond the resemblance (thick nose, hard-set jaw, and cleft chin) there’s only a hardscrabble connection between the two. Morrison was raised in one middle-class neighborhood after another, both in Northern California and in the suburban sprawl south of Los Angeles. Money was tight; his father was a midwife and his mother was a nurse. “I grew up as an only child,” he says. “My parents weren’t great conversationalists. We had a quiet house. I’m not very verbal.” When Morrison was 10, he spent the summer in Arizona with his grandmother, and she sent him off to children’s theater camp.

In high school: He dated the homecoming queen, and—just like on Glee—once, when things got too hot and heavy, she suggested they pray. “It was sweet,” Morrison says. “It was innocent.”

Higher education: Encouraged by his then girlfriend, Morrison applied to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. “If I hadn’t gotten in, my life probably would’ve been a lot more like Mr. Schue’s,” he says thoughtfully.

He still says he’s straight: By his sophomore year he had dropped out of NYU and become a regular performer on Broadway. As a young heterosexual in a scene dominated by women and gay men, he was bathed in attention. “There was so much opportunity,” he says. “There were all these beautiful, beautiful dancers. As a straight guy I had some room. There were the shared interests in singing and dancing, and I always find dancing with someone very evocative and sexual. I definitely hooked up with a lot of girls when I was a young guy on Broadway. It was exciting. Very joyous and free.”

He was a late bloomer, sexually: He joined a Bible-study group in college, and he didn’t lose his virginity until he was 21. Being perceived as a sex object confused him (and still does). “I’m not comfortable with the idea of my sex appeal, but I know in my job I have to use it. I wish I could say I got to this point in my career based on my talent, but I don’t think that’s true.”

On working with the younger kids: “I am a teacher to them,” Morrison says of the younger castmates he refers to as “the kids.” “I’ve taken a few under my wing. I don’t want to say they idolize me, but…” he trails off, realizing how this might sound. He’s careful about what he says and wishes some of his colleagues were a little less publicity-driven. “Yeah, I find myself learning a lot from the set. I do look at stuff people on the show are doing, and I don’t judge them, but I question it. I say to myself, keep quiet. Fame, you know, it’s like a handgun—in the wrong hands, it’s dangerous.”

On dating: Working 15 hours a day, Morrison doesn’t have much time to enjoy the fame he has earned. When he comes home, he pours a glass of wine and rehearses his lines for the next day before collapsing in front of a movie, alone. “It’s been a while,” he says when the conversation turns to dating. “Meeting people, you wonder, ‘What does this person see in me?’ ” That’s not where his head is at. “I’m not a good friend right now. I’m not a good boyfriend. It’s not that I’m selfish. I’m just focused.”

On his album: Somehow, amid this frantic schedule, he’s found time to cut an album—he describes it as “Bublé-esque.” Rumor has it he sings duets with Sting and Elton John. It remains to be seen if this project, due out in February, will separate him from the rest of the Glee pack, but it may offer a glimpse at Morrison’s true nature. “It’s kind of a risk to come out with an album right now,” he tells me. “I can’t release something that is shit. Most of the songs I wrote are personal.”

[From Details]

He really does seem like a nice, decent man. Very clean cut, very… well, I guess he’s probably an ideal People Magazine “Sexiest Man Alive” candidate because I feel absolutely nothing. That’s okay, though. I never go for the clean-cut nice boys, I love ‘em dirty.

Photos courtesy of Details.