Will.i.am on music and acting

Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am recently made his live-action acting debut in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He’s also just released a new Peas album (The E.N.D), his own website and collaborating with some other musician you may have heard of. 

CRAVEONLINE: You do so many things, where do you get your energy from? 

Will.i.am: Thinking about where I was 15 years ago. 15 years ago I was 18, 19 years old and not that I was in a bad place, but it was a scary place because I was transitioning from a dream and that dream not happening, being depressed, poor, so that’s what keeps me going. They say, “Hey, they want you to fly to New York to do a benefit raising money for kids. You wanna go?” F*ck it, let’s go. Hey, Michael Jackson wants us to come back. Michael Jackson wants you to give him a beat. Michael Jackson wants to do a feed? Yeah, he wants you to fly to Ireland, be there for a week. That’s where I go. 

CRAVEONLINE: How was that experience with Michael Jackson? 

Will.i.am: That felt like a dream. You’re there in Ireland. It’s green hills. It’s Michael Jackson. You’re in the cottage making beats, dance beats. He’s like dancing and sh*t. I’m like, “I’m hungry.” He says, “Why don’t you take the horse? Take the horse and pick apples. It’s wonderful. We love doing it. The horses love going apple picking.” I’m like, “All right, I’ll f*cking go.” I swear to God. I’m on a f*cking horse. Michael Jackson’s like, “Wow, it’s great.” The horse is picking apples. I’m like picking apples and junk, putting them in a bag. I’m like wow, this is like picking apples with Michael Jackson on horseback. Look at that sh*t, right? 

CRAVEONLINE: Will that be a good comeback? 

Will.i.am: The dude keeps breaking records. He holds the highest amount of records that you could sell. No one’s ever going to sell that amount of records. Why? Because there are no more record stores. So you’re never going to beat his records. Never, ever, ever in the history of records in life. Not even you, never. How about that? How about no one’s ever going to outsell Michael Jackson at selling records because the record industry is over. Game over. There’s no more record stores. With no more record stores there’s no more pressing plants. With no more pressing plants, there’s no more charts. Now he broke another record. What’d he sell? A million tickets? It was like 500,000 in an hour. The thing broke down basically. The dude’s like, “Okay, why don’t you just like?” 

CRAVEONLINE: But can he perform still? 

Will.i.am: He was in my house. It’s one thing you hear rumors, but when the guy’s in your house, laying on your floor as you’re playing beats. He’s like, “Will.i.am, I love this beat.” He’s laying and his feet are up on the chair, he’s kicking his feet. I’m like dude, Michael Jackson’s laying on my floor. Michael Jackson’s laying on my floor. He’s testing his voice and three hours has passed. He’s just mi mi mi mi mi mi mi mi mi, mi mi mi mi mi mi mi mi mi. He’s doing both voice testing just to sing for five minutes. He’s testing his voice for three hours to sing for five minutes. I don't know. Fergie don’t do that sh*t. Usher don’t do that sh*t. None of the people that you think still got it do that. I’ve seen it, in my house. 

CRAVEONLINE: Is that because he’s more fragile? 

Will.i.am: No, that’s because he’s a perfectionist and he just likes testing his voice. “I just love, you know, this is all we have is flesh and bones. That’s it. It’s just flesh. That’s all we got. I want to protect it and take care of it, because this is my voice. This is my thing.” That’s right. I’m like dude, can we record now? Because it’s three hours, and it’s only going take five minutes. “No, I just want to warm it up.” Like dude, that’s hot. It’s warmed up. But I don't know what he’s going to use from what we’ve done, but I have memories, the stuff I did on Thriller 25 is up. If he uses any of the original things that we’ve done, great. If he didn’t, I have my memories and the things that we’ve done is awesome. I learned so much from the dude. He’s cool. And he has it. I’ve seen it. He mi mi mi’d for three hours. Perfect pitch.

CRAVEONLINE: Will you be there at the concert? 

Will.i.am: I don't know but I know that one time I was in Vegas and he’s like, “Oh, I heard you’re in Vegas.” I was like, “Yeah, we have a show tonight. Can you come?” “What time you guys go on?” We go on at 9 o’clock. I swear to God, “Oh, rats.” He said rats. “Oh, rats, I can’t. I’ve got to put the kids to sleep.” All right, well after we perform with the Peas, I’m performing with Prince. You should come to the show. So Prince invited me to perform with him at the Palms. Maybe you can come see me perform with Prince. So Michael Jackson says, “Oh really? I’d love to. Call Prince and see if it’s cool.” I call Prince’s assistant. She’s like sure. So I’m like, “Yo, Mike, it’s great.” Come on, dude. This sh*t ain’t real. To me, that that happened, it sounds like a big ass lie, right? Yeah, I’ll just call Prince and then bring Michael Jackson but it’s the realest sh*t. So, I’m late. I’m late. I’m in the cab, like aw, man, what a time to be f*ckin’ late. I’m always late and I’m late for Michael Jackson to see me perform with Prince. So I hop off the cab and I’m running in Las Vegas. I’m running and people are like, “Wyclef!” I’m like f*ck you, right? Then I run and I get to the place and I perform for Prince and I walk off stage and Michael’s there. He’s like, “That was awesome.” Mind you, we were already in Ireland. He’s like, “That was awesome. I didn’t know you rapped.” I was like, “What? You don’t know I rap? I’m in the Black Eyed Peas.” “I didn’t think it was you that was the rapper. I thought it was the other guy.” I was like, “No, that’s me, dude.” “You’re awesome, that was awesome. We need to do something like that on my record where you rap and I sing.” Yeah, but that was a great experience to have Mike see me perform with Prince. It was nuts. That’s great, cool.