I love to be on stage and that will never ever go away.” Even when we hit that again to perform the same old records that we performed over and over, I still get that adrenaline rush, because I love being the centre of attention. Is music still exciting, though? “It never, ever gets old to me. But everybody has to remember it was music that really had me first.” Those people are now coming to PE shows, “and it’s definitely a different learning experience for the kids, because there are a lot of kids who watch me on TV, they’re surprised to see Flavor Flav in that element. And that’s because television is more visual.” “Television gave me a whole different audience, you know what I’m sayin’? Television gave me the same-sized audience as music did, but probably twice as fast. The way Flav tells it, reality television gave PE’s career a massive shot in the arm. And in fact we’ve even got a new fanbase now because of Flavor Flav being on television.” “But God is good, and I’m grateful to God for giving us the power to be able to do what we do, to still put smiles on people’s faces, and we still have a big following after all these years. There’s not too many groups from our era that’s still moving around today like we are,” Flav enthuses.

“And to be honest, we’re still outlivin’ a bunch of them. Few of their contemporaries have survived as long, and many – Run-DMC, Gang Starr, A Tribe Called Quest – fell by the wayside long ago. Public Enemy have had a few periods of reduced activity, but never actually split – which makes them among the longest-functioning rap acts in history. And I was like ‘ooh shoot, what am I gonna do?’ So I just went into 911 is a Joke. His band was jamming and he put the mic in my hand and walked away. One of the shockingest but greatest moments in my life was when Prince called me up on stage. I love me some Sydney! Last time we were in Sydney, Prince was performing and had an afterparty at the Ivy. He’s had numerous brushes with the law, largely related to battles with crack addiction in the ’90s and briefly had a line of chicken restaurants in the US (prior to his musical career, Flav was a trained chef).īut mainly he’s known for his appearances on reality television: first on The Surreal Life (where he began a relationship with actor Brigitte Nielsen, leading to the spin-off Strange Love), and then on his own looking-for-a-wife series, Flavor of Love.īut, as he explains, he loves performing with PE – who play the Perth festival on Friday and then tour Australia afterwards – not least because of the attention. Part of that is because of his trademark clock worn around his neck (because, you see, he knows what time it is), but also because of his colourful extra-musical career. Flav – or, as his mother named him, William Drayton Jr – is definitely the most visible member of the band.

Flavor flav crack addiction