Everlast is back with a brand new album. His album "Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford" is in stores now. Everlast is also currently on tour. Everlast was once a member of the group House of Pain. They had a big hit in the 90's with the song "Jump Around." Everlast's new album is his latest solo release and it's great.

I got the new album and its really great. It's different than anything else that's out there. Tell me everything about making new album.
Everlast-Whoa. That's like tell me everything about the universe.

Well, I'll break it down some. This character is someone that you are revisiting. What made you revisit this character Whitey Ford?
Everlast-Well its not really a character. It's like an alter ego. Its something that I've grown attached to. Sort of like an extra mask of Everlast.

I was listening to the album. I can't really classify it as hip-hop. When you turned it into the label were they like, "Wow, how do we get this out there and market it?"
Everlast-It's my label. My label was fully aware of what I was doing because its me. As far as it being a little bit of everything you have to think what is hip-hop. At its root, at its base not the crap that goes on right now, it's a little bit of everything. Hip-hop is taken from every single music on the planet. From classical, to jazz, to blues, to country to everything. Hip-hop is a little bit of everything.

What tracks on the album are your favorite?
Everlast-I don't know. It varies from day to day. It kind of depends on what mood I'm in. If I'm in an upbeat kind of aggressive mood its probably "Stone In My Hand." If I'm in a bit of a sullen retrospective mood it's probably "Anyone," or "Friend." But honestly this is my favorite record that I've ever made. I still listen to it which is kind of rare. I'm usually done listening to my records by the time they come out because I've already heard them enough.

Have you done a lot of performances to support the new album?
Everlast-We've been on the road about three weeks now. I think we're about fifteen shows in now, a little more. It's hard to say. We've been out on the road about three weeks now. I'll be out for hopefully the next year.

How are the live shows going?
Everlast-Oh they're going good. The band sounds great. All of the songs are starting to come together. Now that the record is out the crowds are starting to pick up some steam. I can't complain.

I remember when House of Pain came out with "Jump Around," I know you have a lot of fans who might not remember that time. Can you describe what that time was like when you all had that huge success?
Everlast-We were young. It was a great thing. We saw the world. Made a fair amount of money, and we experienced a fair amount of shit. It's one of those things you don't plan for. It just kind of happens. You hope it happens but you can never plan for it. We got a little lucky and we had a nice run.

I was reading in the bio that you got your start in the early 90's with Ice T and Rhyme Syndicate. He was huge back then. How did you even meet Ice T to get in that situation?
Everlast-A friend of mine actually. I was making tapes with Divine Styler and his partner Bilal and they knew Ice. I was making tapes for fun. They knew Ice T and they played a tape of me and he dug it and then he found out I was a white kid. He was like "Yo, I want to meet the guy." Next thing I know he was like, "Do you want to make a record?"

Everlast Interview Clip

I know you started your solo career back in the mid 90's. You had a lot of success right away from what I can tell. Do you ever miss being in a group situation?
Everlast-Occasionally. I'm actually in a group now named La Koca Nostra with all of my House of Pain guys and my buddy Ill Bill from Nonfiction, my buddy Salim who is out of Boston and a few other cats. You can do both and do all of that. I think the group thing is cool because it's a collective you get to bounce off of everybody else and feed off of everybody else's energy. Solo stuff is more, a little more self indulgent. You're diving into your own thoughts a little bit deeper.

Did you do a score for a TV show? I remember reading something like that.
Everlast-Yeah I wrote the theme song for and scored the show "Saving Grace."

Is that something you worked on a lot during your years out in Hollywood?
Everlast-Oh know its actually a new thing that's been happening. I'm just starting to get into scoring. I actually looked into doing some films. I'm a big film fan. I love being a part of the making of a film but not necessarily acting in a film.

Where are you originally from?
Everlast-Well I was born in Long Island, New York but I was maybe 85% raised in Los Angeles. I kind of consider myself being from Los Angeles.

I remember when House of Pain came out and when Cypress Hill came out with B-Real I never really looked at you as a white artist per se. Did that melting pot of Hispanics and the Blacks and the White people, and mixing it up with music did that influence you to not come out like "I'm this white performer," because I never really saw you like that.
Everlast-That's how the culture in LA is, it's kind of Black, White and Hispanic. Its all kind of blended together out here. Yeah I mean being exposed to Black music and Spanish music and not even just that but gang culture has an influence on me even though I was never a gang member or a gang banger. That was part of the culture with people wearing Chuck Taylors and Dickies. You notice that even if you are not a gang banger. Absolutely. I'm influenced by everything I come into contact with.

I know you've been out there doing music for a long time. Have you ever had a chance to form a foundation or get out there and do anything positive for the young people?
Everlast-No, I don't found no foundations. As far as doing positive things for young people all I can do is be me. My outlook on charity is that I feel that charity that's talked about isn't really charity at all. I don't really like seeing news stories like "So and so donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity." I don't see that as charity, I see that as a publicity stunt. Why does anyone need to know that? What I do is what I do. Charity is an anonymous thing. As far as activism, I try, I'm involved with my buddy Sean Penn's organization "The Dirty Hands Caravan," which is where we got a bunch of cats to volunteer for the Coachella Festival in LA 150 kids and we took them all down to New Orleans and we took them around and introduced them to all of the volunteer organizations and tried to help them get involved and we did some work on homes. I'm doing my own bit of promoting for Mr. Obama at the moment. I'm active. As far as charitable stuff though, that's private.

Sean Penn the actor?
Everlast-Yeah.

Photo Credit-Scott Caan

I know you said you just got into scoring. Have you done any acting yourself?
Everlast-I've done a few things. It's hit or miss with the movies. There's nothing in your control.
You gotta trust whoever you go in there and work with. I've done a couple of things on film that weren't the greatest movies. They were very small parts. I got to be a lot more careful. I'm saying like this, if Martin Scorcese called me up and said he wanted to me to be in a movie of course I would say yeah. Absolutely but I'm not out going on auditions. I'm not out there trying to do movies. I'd rather be making the music behind the scenes.

I really like the new album. Have you worked with any other artists lately or have you just been working on your project?
Everlast-Well I wrote Snoop Dogg a song for his new album. I wrote a country song for him called "My Medicine." That was an interesting collaboration. He's been a buddy of mine for a long while. Just one day I was at the Jam Master Jay Awards and me and him were performing at the same time and we got to talking country music. He was like, "Dude, I want you to write me a country song." I brewed a little tune for him. He wound up digging it and ended up putting it on his album.

I really, really like the album you just released. I wrote a really good review for it. Do you aspire to have a lot of radio and television success with this album or was it more important getting the music made the way you want it?
Everlast-Well that's kind of like a two part answer. When I was making the record I didn't think of any of that. The minute its done of course you want success. You want people to hear it. That's what it is, its like painting a painting and not letting anyone look at it. As for this record I would like it to be as heard by as many people as possible. The more people that buy a record the more successful it is monetarily I'm at the stage in my life where I've been blessed by a few things together, a few really big successes in the music business and the fact that I'm kinda content where I'm at. I don't have this desire for private jets, I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice, its not something I desire and crave like its something that I gotta work hard to get that. I'd rather be the best artist that I can be even if that means sometimes taking risks that people don't get or going against the grain a little bit. I want to leave behind a collection of work that maybe people will talk about you fondly when you're gone.

Everlast Interview Clip

Related Links-http://www.myspace.com/theofficialeverlast

Everlast-interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2008

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Everlast -interview may not be reprinted, copied or distribute without permission. You may link to this interview.Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com October 2008.