Everlast-Who I am and what I do? I'm Everlast, I play the guitar, I'm a Leo. (laughter) Y'know, I mean, I do my thing, it's hard to describe what I do. I don't know if I sing, do I rap? I don't know. I do a lot of things. I'm a Renaissance man.
TLA- Now you've done a lot of changing over the years sort of and you've kind of stayed the same essence in your music and with your new album Whitey Ford Sings the Blues how much originality you brought from way back from when you started until now? I mean, is there essence of Everlast way back in this new album?
Everlast- Yeah, there's definitely a little bit of the long-haired, suit wearin' Everlast on this record, there's some House of Pain Everlast. I think I've made a progression every record. I think that's always been my goal, is to never make the same record twice. Especially when I left House of Pain, just to really take it as far away from House of Pain as I could because I wanted to prove something to myself more than anything else. I had been thinkin' about doin' some different things for a while, but I had to prove it to myself more than anything else. I used to get real mad at people for callin' me a rapper, and not really callin' me a musician. Because all the things I've done are music, know what I'm sayin'? But now it's like, maybe I think I earned that title more than ever before, at least in my eyes.
TLA- How hard is it to leave a band such as House of Pain with such a hot single and at the top of the charts and touring was going great and everything else, I mean, how hard was it not to follow up with another album for a band that's already known as opposed to trying to go back on your own and do solo work?
Everlast- Well, we did three albums, but I mean, the second album almost went platinum, I think it sold like 900,000, the third album, I quit the day it came out. How hard was it? It was actually really difficult, it was a scary thing to do, it's like quitting your job before you find another one. You're riskin' something, but at that point, my happiness and my mental state of being were really seriously in question, at least for me. I felt like, if I didn't just get away from everything that was around me at the time that something really bad would have happened. I just wasn't ready for that, I just wanted to cut loose and not get caught up in something like obligated to something. I was obligated to House of Pain, not just for me but for the other guys in the band, I mean, all arrogance or ego aside, without me there was no House of Pain. I was like the lead guy, so it was like almost there was a pressure on me sometimes to do things I didn't want to do because the other two guys wanted them done, and I felt that I had been friends with these guys for so long that if I didn't quit, I wouldn't be friends with them now, which I am. I'm better friends with Lethal than I've ever been and Dannyboy I haven't seen in a while, but I still got tremendous love for him. I feel like, if I would have stuck around, I would have resented it, and maybe resented them.
TLA- Now that you're doing your own solo work, do you feel it's an easier or tougher road to how knowing that you have only yourself to rely on? You, like other musicians, have people you work with on a constant basis, but it's just you, it's just Everlast.
Everlast- I think that, I don't know if it's tougher, but it's easier to point the finger. It's easier to be like, if it succeeds, I get to be the man, and if it fails I get to be the guy who screwed it up. But, for me, just finishing the record was a success. Just to be able to do something that maybe right now may be considered, like y'know, it's like, for me, I believe it took courage to do what I did in the age of being hard and making money and driving a Lex and having sex and this and that, to come clean and actually be honest about who I am as a human being as opposed to trying to front and say what people want to hear and be fashionable. Not that anything I was doing before was a front, but that's kind of one of the reasons I left House of Pain too was because it was getting to the point where if we didn't live up to a certain image, people were getting disappointed. It's like, yo, as you get older, things change. Can't be that same dude forever. I'm not trying to be Keith Richards and just be worn out and torn up at the age of 50. I'm going to slow down, especially when I've had health problems and stuff. I'm just trying to slow down and be all I can be for as long as I can be it.
TLA- Would you call yourself a survivor in a lot of different terms? I know towards the end of recording this last album you had some health problems come upon you and to be able to get through that and still pursue the putting out of this album and everything that goes with, the interviews and the appearances and what not even with your health as it is, although it's gotten progressively better, do you consider yourself a survivor, or a role model for other people?
Everlast- I'm a survivor in the sense of the fact that I did survive. I had open heart surgery and a heart valve replacement in February. And I'm a survivor in the sense that I've been around in this music business a lot longer than other people. As far as a role model, I guess it depends on what role you're trying to play. Because, anybody can be a role model if somebody's trying to be that person. I prefer to think of myself not as a role model, and some people might not see the difference, but as an example. A good and bad example of what can happen and what you can do. That's a tough call, to be a role model is to assume a lot of responsibility, but just to be in the public eye or something is to assume a lot of responsibility. But I don't exactly think that my music is being listening to, or listened to, by real young kids. If I'm a role model to someone who's already an adult they kinda got problems. (laughter) I mean, if they're looking for role models at the age of 25 or 30 then they got problems as it is. I'd like to think that maybe I've set a few examples, some of them good, some of them bad, but always trying to do what I think is right and being true to myself.
TLA- That brings up a good point about your fan base. When you say your fan base is necessarily an older crowd, and in the music industry it was 22 and above, does that bother you or are you comfortable with the fact that maybe 12 year old, 13 year old kids aren't listening to you?
Everlast- Well, I don't think I can relate very well to a 12 year old or a 13 year old. I would like to write some songs that they could like, and I think that I did. I think a 12 year old or a 13 year old can listen to some of my stuff and be like, 'yo, that's good music.' But as far as where I'm at mentally and where a 12 or 13 year old is at, I don't expect them to be down with me. Like, 'oh yeah, I relate to his struggle.' Because first of all they're still getting fed by Mom and Dad. They haven't had to contemplate nearly half the things I've had to contemplate. I'm like the worlds' oldest 29 year old because, I've had the heart surgery, I've been around the world five times, so I've got things under my belt that even the average guy my age hasn't seen. So I don't expect a real young person to. I mean, what they're relating to now is, especially when it comes to hip-hop, I mean, I would hope some of these kids would listen to my music because they'll get a lot more out of it than they will Puff Daddy. I'm not really dissing anybody, but if you're all about gluttony and lust, fine, go ahead. But I think I've seen that side of things and it's not gonna get you nowhere except hurt up.
TLA- How important was it to put deeper meaning behind your songs, rather than somebody like Puffy, where everything is like, hip-hop happy, driving around in your Mercedes have all kinds of girls music? Your music definitely has a deeper meaning.
Everlast- I don't know if it was important to put the meaning behind it, what was important was to kinda like strip down and not be fake. Be like, okay, here are some of the things I really think about. Here's some stuff that's really me, whether it's popular or not. Whether it's cool to be like, 'Y'know what, I'm not the toughest dude in the world and I can't beat everybody's ass. But, yo, check this out, I feel like this about something.' It's like, I'm getting older so let me strip down, let me take some of this armor off and let people look at a human being, a man. I had somebody tell me something once that at first I didn't know what to think about it, then it became such a huge compliment to me. They listened to my record and they said 'Y'know what? it sounds like a regular guy made a record.' At first I didn't know how to take that, then after a while it sunk in like...it sounds like somebody who everybody could relate to made a record. I really think that's a huge compliment, and I really hope that's what people get out of it. Like yo, all these cats that are claiming to be stars, they go to the bathroom, they eat, they sleep, they do everything just like you. And the whole celebrity worship thing is so tired. I mean, it's cool to dig a guy for what he can do and his talents and appreciate those talents, but our country has a serious problem with celebrity worship. It's not cool. And I don't want to be that guy. I would love to sell millions of records and have huge hits and all that but at the same time I still want to be the guy who could walk down the street and people would be like 'hey, how you doin'? I liked your record' without being tripped on.
TLA- Like me when I was younger. (laugh)
Everlast- It's one thing for a young person, for a kid. But, we're talking about adults here now too. I mean, let's be honest. I know cats older than me that just get all dumbfounded when they get around famous people. Like ooh wow! And it's like, what? All it is is money. That's the only difference between you and them. Sometimes, it ain't even that big of a difference. (laugh) Some of these cats ain't got what you think they got. I mean, don't get me wrong either, I've caught myself being a little, but for me it's more about sports legends or things like that. I met Michael Jordan and I was just like 'wow, you're fuckin' MICHAEL JORDAN!' Everybody can fall victim to it, but just not letting it be like all what it's cracked up to be. Especially nowadays, everything is becoming so material, and like I said, it's all about gluttony. Audio and visual gluttony is what I see, and I'm just not down with it.
TLA- In regards to your album, how hard is it to maintain a musicianship? I know you said earlier about being a rapper vs. being a musician and also involving some of the hip-hop stylings into your music while still maintaining complete musicianship, as opposed to just beats and rhymes and that's it.
Everlast- Well, I mean, it wasn't that hard for us, I just did what came naturally on this record. With the encouragement of my producers, the Stimulated Dummies, y'know they told me what was working and what wasn't. I come from rap music, I come from hip-hop. So, it's not hard for me to keep hip-hop involved in what I'm doing. Basically what I did on this record was take all the music that ever influenced me in my life and try and ball it up into one package. The only trick was getting the balance right. Makin' sure it wasn't too much of one and not enough of the other, or vice versa.
TLA- Absolutely. Another question, the first track on the album, "The Whiteboy is Back"...why is that track on there?
Everlast- Well, do you know what that song is?
TLA- Yeah, its "The Fat Boys Are Back"
Everlast- It's a joke. (laughs) We were going through some records one day and we threw the Fat Boys record on and *singing* The Fat Boys Are Back." I was just, like, that's the craziest. I was like...the White Boy is Back. We all just looked at each other like, we gotta do it. That's why we didn't turn it into a full blast song or nothin', it's just an intro, like joke. What's more appropriate, y'know what I'm sayin'? I am THE whiteboy of this game, I don't care what anybody says. I'm proud of it.
TLA- You also have little inserts from Sen Dog and Prince Paul, now putting that on the album was for what purpose?
Everlast- Because those are my people. They were there, checkin', always callin'. I'm totally against interludes, but at the same time it kinda...the actual reason they're on there beside giving shout outs to those people, is certain songs it bridged the gap a litte better. It was like, if you're eating two different things and you wash it down, you cleanse your pallete with a little water or wine or whatever. That's kinda what it was, it was kinda to cleanse the ears a little before the next song kicked in. But mostly, it was to let those cats know I appreciate who they are, and what they've meant to me.
