Fergie chats about solo album
NEW YORK (AP) - In the basement of a trendy downtown hotel, Fergie sits waiting at the head of a large wooden table, scribbling notes on a yellow legal pad.
The sexy, spicy element of the Black Eyed Peas apologizes for wanting to meet in this stuffy, angular room rather than the trendy Asian restaurant first suggested.
"I just couldn't deal with a New York night out," she says.
She also apologizes for wearing a black Adidas track suit and knit cap - she's simply not up for glamour today. Her nails are scuffed and bitten. She apologizes for that, too.
It's a different image of a performer more often seen strutting her stuff in something small, expensive and tight, her hips wiggling, boasting about her "lovely lady lumps."
"Maybe I'll get on the table and dance," she says with a smile.
The 31-year-old is preoccupied these days with her solo debut CD "The Dutchess," an eclectic collection of 13 songs she hopes will prove she's more than just a pretty Pea.
Containing everything from torch songs ("All That I Got," "Finally") to bouncy pop ("Fergalicious," "Clumsy"), reggae ("Voodoo Doll") and even techno ("Glamorous"), the album has germinated for years and represents her wide musical influences.
"That is my truth and makes me who I am," says Fergie, born Stacy Ann Ferguson. "If I'd only done one style, that wouldn't have been a truthful representation of me."
Lyric-wise, "The Dutchess" - a riff on how her name is similar to that of Britain's Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson - offers a more introspective Fergie, a woman willing to talk about her loves, her critics and her former meth addiction.
"There are a lot of times when I really dig deep on this album whereas, with the guys, I don't know if there's enough of a platform to go into all of my drama or love affairs," she says.
"I think it's important to represent who I am in all facets," she adds. "That's why I've talked about my struggle with drugs. I don't want to talk about it all the time because it's not a part of my life any more but I'm not running from it."
Based on the success of the saucy first single "London Bridge," Fergie shouldn't stress. A late entry for song of the summer, it sat atop the Billboard singles chart for three weeks - not to mention all it did for Anglo-American relations.
"It was a huge landmark day for me. I was crying - happy crying - and running around the house calling everybody," she says when the song hit No. 1. "For it to finally happen and for the song to be successful, it's really rewarding."
The rest of the CD - co-written by Fergie and produced by Ron Fair, DJ Mormile and will.i.am, the Peas' lead lyricist - features samples from Little Richard, The Commodores and The Temptations. Guests include John Legend, Ludacris and Rita Marley.
"Once people get this album and hear what she's capable of as a singer and writer, I think that's when the roof blows off it," says Fair, chairman of Geffen Records. "That's when she's not just a little trifling pop girl doing disposable hits."
Fergie, raised in Whittier, Calif., may have seemed destined for that fate when she emerged at age seven in the kiddie TV band Kids Incorporated, later graduating to the pop girl group Wild Orchid in the 1990s.
Wanting to make it on her own, she approached will.i.am with the hope of convincing him to help create a solo CD. She had seen the Peas live in 1998 - before they were multiplatinum sensations - and was an enormous fan.
She started off in a kind of apprenticeship, adding her booming, soulful backing vocals to what would be the band's third album, "Elephunk," which had hits like "Where's the Love" and the Grammy Award-winning "Let's Get It Started." By the time will.i.am - together with bandmates Taboo and apl.de.ap - left for a tour of Australia in 2003, Fergie was their fourth member.
"I didn't plan to ever be in the band, but as things organically grew, and I started working with them for my solo album, there was some point where we made that decision," she says. "I just went with my gut."
Joining a tight hip-hop band that thrived onstage was more difficult than it seemed. Fergie held back at first until she could learn how to roll with the ad-libs and pick her spots.
There were also the catcalls and ire from long-term fans of the Peas who didn't like the band's blossoming mainstream popularity - blaming it, in part, on the newest blond Pea.
"It does get painful sometimes," she says. "I actually really had to pep-talk myself so that I could overcome those fears. It's hard when someone's sitting there staring at you. Or even mad-dogging you.
"Now I just get in their face."
In 2005, the group's "Monkey Business" turned into another multiplatinum success thanks to "My Humps," "Pump It" and "Don't Phunk with My Heart," which won another Grammy.
Despite the Peas' triumphs since she came aboard, she's loathe to single out herself as the reason behind their success: "I think it has to do with us. I think we all are responsible for the success of these albums," she says. "It's a team effort."
But it's all about Fergie on "The Dutchess." On the new album, she mixes her vulnerable and fierce sides. "Would you love me/If I didn't work out/Or didn't change my natural hair?" she asks a lover in "All That I Got." On "London Bridge," she threatens to mace pushy photographers and boasts: "I'm such a lady, but I'm dancin' like a ho."
"It's poking fun at certain things. I'm really not going to spray the paparazzi with mace - I don't know if you know that about me," she says, smiling.
"I'm not a promiscuous girl - like I talk about in 'Clumsy,' I'm always the girl with the boyfriend in serious relationships - but I do like to play with my sexuality. I don't think that means I have to live in a morgue," she says (Fergie and "Las Vegas" hunk Josh Duhamel have been dating for some time).
Fergie thinks she'll be able to open up even more on the next Black Eyed Peas album - no, she insists, they're not breaking up - because her solo CD will let fans "get me and know who I am."
"Sometimes I feel like the underdog. But I like that because then more people will be surprised when they do see something that they like from me," she says. "I've learned that I can't please everybody."
Pitt to Replace Cruise On Next Mission?
Brad Pitt has been rumored to be the next star of the Mission Impossible movie franchise.
The British tabloid This Is London reports the next chapter in the Mission Impossible film series has Brad Pitt replacing Tom Cruise, which will reportedly give Pitt the biggest paycheque in the history of Hollywood film-making.
One source tells the publication, "MI:IV will not include Cruise's character, agent Ethan Hunt. They're considering a brief mention, saying Hunt retired to live a safe life with his new wife.
They're set on Brad taking over as a gutsy new head operative who puts together his own unique team of specialists."
The news comes just one month after Paramount Pictures ended their 14-year relationship with Cruise and his production company, stating the actor's recent behavior as the reason for the separation.
Def Leppard Expands 'Hysteria' For 20th Anniversary
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its best-selling album, Def Leppard will reissue "Hysteria" as a two-CD package Oct. 24 via Bludgeon Riffola/Island/UME. Beyond a remastered edition of the original album, the new edition includes a bonus disc with a host of non-album tracks first issued during the period.
Among them are the studio B-sides "Tear It Down," "Ride Into the Sun," "I Wanna Be Your Hero" and "Ring of Fire," live versions of "Elected," "Love And Affection" and "Billy's Got a Gun" recorded in Holland in July 1987 and extended mixes of five tracks.
"Hysteria" has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide, according to the label, and spawned six top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the top 10s "Love Bites," "Pour Some Sugar on Me," "Armageddon It," and "Hysteria."
Def Leppard is on the road with Journey through mid-November in support of its recent covers album, "Yeah!," which debuted at No. 16 on The Billboard 200.
Hannibal Lecter returns for holiday season
TORONTO (Reuters) - Call it "Hannibal Lecter, the early years." After a silence of seven years, author Thomas Harris has written a new book featuring fictional serial killer/cannibal Hannibal Lecter, famously played in films by Anthony Hopkins.
The book, "Hannibal Rising," will be in stores on December 5 with a first printing of 1.5 million copies and just in time for the Christmas sales season, Delacorte Press, an imprint of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, said on Tuesday.
The 356-page novel, a last-minute addition to Delacorte's list of new books for the holiday season, is the fourth book dealing with the cannibalistic doctor and chronicles his early years, Bantam publisher Irwyn Applebaum said.
Applebaum said the book was an eagerly awaited part of the story but had taken seven years since the last novel in the series, "Hannibal," as Harris, a native of Mississippi, does not write at a "prolific pace" for a popular novelist.
"This villain has fascinated readers. It's very unusual for a character to stay alive that long in the imagination of readers," Applebaum told Reuters.
Lecter first appeared in print in Harris' 1981 book "Red Dragon" and then in 1988 in "Silence of the Lambs."
But he became widely known through the 1991 Oscar-winning movie "Silence of the Lambs," starring Hopkins and Jodie Foster as FBI trainee-turned-agent Clarice Starling.
The film ends with Lecter, who enjoys a glass of Chianti as he devours human liver, saying he has to go: "I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner."
In "Hannibal Rising" readers learn about Lecter's early life in Eastern Europe from age 6 to 20, following the death of his entire family during World War Two.
A film version of the new novel from a screenplay by Harris is expected to be released in February 2007.
Harris' only novel not dealing with Lecter is his first, "Black Sunday" in 1975, a best seller about a terrorist plot to blow up the Super Bowl with a bomb-laden blimp.
'South Park' celebrates with best-of DVD
LOS ANGELES - "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker say that choosing their favorite episode would be like choosing between their children. Not that they're above that.
Stone and Parker hand-picked their 10 most beloved episodes of the long-running Comedy Central show to appear on the new "South Park The Hits: Volume 1" DVD, in stores Oct. 3.
The new DVD also includes four bonus episodes and "The Spirit of Christmas," a never-released animated short.
"South Park" first aired Aug. 13, 1997. It begins its tenth season on Comedy Central on Oct. 4.
Mariah, Chilis, Peas, Nickelback Top AMA Noms
With three nominations each, Mariah Carey, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Black Eyed Peas and Nickelback lead the field for the 2006 American Music Awards, to be broadcast live by ABC on Nov. 21 from Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Eminem, Jamie Foxx, Pussycat Dolls, Rascal Flatts, T.I., Carrie Underwood and Kanye West snared two nominations each.
Carey is up for favorite female pop/rock and soul/R&B artist as well as favorite soul/R&B album for "The Emancipation of Mimi," while the Chili Peppers and Nickelback both scored nods for favorite band, duo or group and favorite pop/rock album.
Chamillionaire, Pussycat Dolls and Carrie Underwood will vie for favorite new breakthrough artist. Winners will be chosen by a 20,000-strong sampling of U.S. residents.
Here are the 2006 American Music Awards nominees:
Pop/Rock
Favorite male artist:
Nick Lachey
Sean Paul
Kanye West
Favorite female artist:
Mariah Carey
Kelly Clarkson
Nelly Furtado
Favorite band, duo or group:
Nickelback
Pussycat Dolls
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Favorite album:
"All the Right Reasons," Nickelback
"Stadium Arcadium," Red Hot Chili Peppers
"High School Musical," Various Artists
Country
Favorite male artist:
Kenny Chesney
Toby Keith
Keith Urban
Favorite female artist:
Faith Hill
Carrie Underwood
Gretchen Wilson
Favorite band, duo or group:
Brooks & Dunn
Montgomery Gentry
Rascal Flatts
Favorite album:
"Legend of Johnny Cash," Johnny Cash
"Greatest Hits Volume 2," Tim McGraw
"Me And My Gang," Rascal Flatts
Soul/R&B
Favorite male artist:
Chris Brown
Jamie Foxx
NE-YO
Favorite female artist:
Mary J. Blige
Mariah Carey
Keyshia Cole
Favorite band, duo or group:
Black Eyed Peas
The Isley Brothers
Jagged Edge
Favorite album
"The Breakthrough," Mary J. Blige
"The Emancipation of Mimi," Mariah Carey
"Unpredictable," Jamie Foxx
Rap/hip-hop
Favorite male artist:
Eminem
T.I.
Kanye West
Favorite band, duo or group:
Black Eyed Peas
Dem Franchize Boyz
Three 6 Mafia
Favorite album:
"Monkey Business," Black Eyed Peas
"Curtain Call," Eminem
"King," T.I.
Adult contemporary
Favorite Artist:
Michael Buble
Kelly Clarkson
Rob Thomas
Alternative
Favorite artist:
Nickelback
Pearl Jam
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Latin
Favorite artist:
Daddy Yankee
Don Omar
Shakira
Contemporary inspirational
Favorite artist:
Aly & AJ
Casting Crowns
Kirk Franklin
Favorite new breakthrough artist:
Chamillionaire
Pussycat Dolls
Carrie Underwood