When Clay Aiken came into the world in 2008, the public didn’t react the way they probably would today.

Shortly after the birth of his son Parker in August 2008 American Idol alum came out as gay on the cover of PEOPLE. At the time, Aiken said he wanted to keep a promise he made to himself as a new father.

“It was the first decision I made as a father,” Aiken, then 29, said at the time. “I cannot raise a child to lie or hide things. I wasn’t raised like that and I won’t raise a child like that.”

Aiken, now 46, reflects on that moment with PEOPLE, saying that much of his public persona revolved around speculation about his sexuality. While he’s glad he was able to sort it out, it came with a price.

“It was a big deal back then,” says Aiken, who recently marked his return to music Christmas bells are ringing.

At the time, Aiken was playing on Broadway Spamalotand he noticed a drastic change in ticket sales after it came out.

“For the first four months I was there, the show was sold out, standing room only. You can actually look at ticket sales the week after the cover came out,” he says. “It sold very well until ticket sales dropped a week after the cover came out. Spamalot was finally closed a few months later.

“We live in a completely different time,” he continues. “I lost maybe 50 percent of the fan base.”

Still, Aiken has no regrets and is “thrilled” to know that “this is no longer the world we live in.”

“A lot of people who are coming out now are becoming more and more popular because of it… That’s overwhelming to me because it’s the opposite of what happened when I came out,” he says. “But it does mean that there is progress and that we are on the right track as a country.”

On November 22, after more than a decade without music, Aiken released a holiday album titled Christmas bells are ringing. The album celebrated tradition and nostalgia with beloved holiday standards from the likes of Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and Paul McCartney.

“I really wanted to make songs that people knew were about Christmas. I mean, it’s about nostalgia. It’s that time of year at the end of the year when we look back and reflect on the past year, and we also like the memories of years gone by,” he says.

After I took second place idolAiken toured nationally and made his Broadway debut. He was also the first idol Alum had his first single debut at No. 1 on the billboard Hot 100, earn a platinum single and a triple platinum album.