The Roots’ drummer has a planet-size skull, e-mails with Prince and takes mommy vitamins. Nibble on this space cake and tell us...
That’s a nice self-portrait. But you don’t have any arms.I don’t know how to draw body parts. I’ve been told the black male celebrities with the biggest heads are Prince, Malcolm Jamal Warner and me. I wear a size 8
3/8 hat. Like, you might as well put a belt on my head.
Is the Afro low maintenance or high maintenance?It’s high maintenance to make it look low maintenance. I’ve always had this hair. In ’81, there was a movie,
Wolfen; that was what people in the ghetto called you if your haircut wasn’t tight. It was an insult I had to endure.
Do people ever confuse you with someone else?Back in 1999, Prince gave a lunchtime concert and spotted me in the audience. He was like, “Get on the drums.” The next day, a newspaper wrote, “The highlight of the jam was 1960s drum legend Buddy Miles, who is miraculously timeless.” The first e-mail Prince ever sent me had that article. Subject line: “What the hell is going on?”
Who is your fantasy woman?I’ve got a secret crush on Tina Fey. I know that’s really un-hip-hop, but fuck it. I ain’t ashamed.
How would you characterize your taste in sex?It’s standard. Celebrity is the thin line between snapping your fingers and begging. Me? I’m doing light begging.
Do you remember your first experience with alcohol?I’m
the only one in the Roots who doesn’t drink or smoke. Our first trip to
Amsterdam, they were ordering peanut-butter-and-hemp sandwiches, so I
ate a space cake, and nothing happened. Mind you, I was near 500 pounds
at the time, so I had three more. I was there with my tour manager, and
she had three eyes. The entire night I was throwing up. I was crying,
“Don’t tell my mom! Don’t tell my dad!”
If we gave you a urine test, what would we find?Some wheatgrass, and prenatal vitamins.
Why? Are you pregnant?
My trainer has me taking them. At first I was a little weirded out.
Prenatal vitamins: very un-hip-hop.Nothing about us is hip-hop.
What was your high school nickname?To
get a nickname, you had to actually go outside and play. All I knew was
school, homework, dinner and three hours of drum practice in the
basement, every day. I couldn’t even watch TV. During the Michael
Jackson madness, when he won all those Grammys, my dad let me watch.
Wynton Marsalis won two Grammys, and he said, “I really want to thank
my father for making me practice five hours a day.” Instantly, my dad
was like, “Oh, hell, get in the basement!”