Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/14045
LIVE: Was the recent Giant Orange Festival everything you expected and more? LIL JON: I've been to the OC plenty of times. I'm here a lot dealing with Oakley. Oakley is family with me. I have a couple of signature sunglasses with them - actually I was just here with Oakley a week ago doing something for the MLB All Star Game. It was like we were just chillin and like we were having a big house party. That's what it was like. LIVE: It was great that you let people up on the stage. LIL JON: I'm a regular guy. I'm not the A-hole artist that yells 'Everybody's gotta clear the stage. Nobody can be around here. Don't touch me. Don't look at me.' No. I'm just a regular guy. LIVE: Tell us a bit about all the Dave Chappelle stuff and you. LIL JON: Well Dave ruined my life. He made it where I can't go anywhere without people screaming at me and hollering at me and chanting things at me, but it's great. Every time I'm on any kind of interview and people ask me about it, I thank Dave honestly, because he helped me to go where music would've never taken me. The broad appeal of his show and his characterization of me made me a household iconic pop-rock figure. I'm forever in pop-culture because of Dave Chappelle and I thank him for doing that skit on me. I was even fortunate enough to go on the show and we did a sketch together where we were going back and forth and it was basically improvisation. Then he took it and chopped it up and added his parts to it and, even just that, was amazing. To sit there and improv with a comedy genius - people don't get those types of chances. Because I'm not a comedian. I think I'm funny as hell, sometimes, but I'm not a comedian and to sit there with a comedic genius and improv and have him take it and create something even greater than what we had when we were just messing around is amazing. So thank you Dave for having people scream and holler at me. LIVE: Let's talk about your look. LIL JON: This is Liberace! (points to gold and diamond arm band). You have to give it up to Liberace. People hate on Liberace, but Liberace had some of the most incredible jewelry ever. This is my ode to Liberace. I wanted something Liberace- esque. So that's the white and gold diamonds. LIVE: …and it even matches your teeth. LIL JON: Exactly! You have to have an ensemble, ladies and gentleman. You have to have things match. LIVE: When it is a family event, your act was a little different. Tell us about it. LIL JON: Well I'm a father. My son is 12 years old. We hang out all the time. He lives with me, of course, so I know how to keep it clean. I don't necessarily always do a clean event because sometimes I curse a lot, but sometimes you gotta keep it clean. LIVE: It was the first festival for the Great Park (Irvine) and they had a Grammy Award winner. How do you feel about that? LIL JON: Well the way I look at it, you can't start as a giant. You have to grow to be a giant. So this is a great starting point. The set up of the place is amazing - so this is a great starting point and there's only room to grow. LIVE: So I want to know what else you're up to lately. I know while you were in the OC you also went Sutra, is that right? LIL JON: Yes and actually I just did Sutra about three weeks ago. I DJ'd there. That's what I'm really doing a lot of right now is DJing. A lot of people don't know I started off as a DJ in the 90's in Atlanta. I was one of the biggest Dj's in Atlanta on the radio and everything, and then I went behind the scenes doing A&R and production stuff. Now I'm back on the scene Djing again, doing what my number one passion is, what I started off with. Also I just had an album out Crunk Rock. LIVE: So explain to people who don't know what Crunk means. LIL JON: Crunk does NOT mean crazy and drunk. Crunk is like, when you crank your car up, after you crank it up - it's crunk. It's really that simple. It just turned into slang and we say "crunk" meaning getting crazy, getting off the hook, getting kinda insane. Now the new slogan is "turned up", like you turn the volume up on your car, that's basically getting crunk. Crunk is a past tense of crank. We have Crunk energy drink or Crunk Sticks. We introduced a brand new product to the energy market and it's basically Pixie Stix that gives you energy. It's our product "Crunk", in powdered form. You put it on your tongue, let it dissolve, and it makes you crazy, like me. I talk about it a lot on Twitter @liljon. My fans are really people from all over the world. They are the ones that follow me. I'm just crazy anyways: some people just follow me to help them get through their day, because I give them some crazy anecdotes sometimes. I give them a piece of my life. That's what I tweet about, my life, realness, and just crazy stuff that's on my mind. LIVE: So was it worth it? What are you going to say about Orange County next time you're asked? LIL JON: I love the OC. I love the OC anyway because the Oakley Compound is here so I'm here a lot. I've done a bunch of events here and I've been here numerous times, a lot of meetings etc. LIVE: Speaking of meetings, some people may not know but you're a pretty hardcore business man right? LIL JON: I try to be. I tell people all the time you can't be a dumb millionaire, there's no stupid millionaires. You have to be intelligent. You have to be focused in business and stay on top of your stuff, that's how you make money. LIVE: What advice would you give to your younger self if you could? LIL JON: For me, when I was younger, what helped me to become who I am today is by being open to everything. Even at a kid's age you need to live your life and be open to things that you normally might not do or people you may not hang around. Just try things. For example if you were to go to a crazy party and they have all these trays of food and you've never tried escargot or whatever, try it. You may like it. That's my advice, you have to try different things, and by trying different things it helps you to become yourself as an adult. You never know what you're gonna like until you experiment and play around with stuff. That's what happened to me. I was a skate, punk rock, new wave, crazy, kid from Atlanta, Georgia, and I became who I am today. So here I am. Deuces. (holds up peace signs) INTERVIEW WITH LIL JON LIVEMAGS.NET AUGUST>>10 27