Exclusive Interview with House of Pain’s Danny Boy
By Michelle Oberg
RUKUS MAGAZINE: Is the House of Pain reunion just going to be for the 20 year Anniversary?
DANNY BOY: We’ve been rapping since we were 5. [laughs] Just kidding. But no, not really… We still do La Coka Nostra, which is with House of Pain and a few other bands. We’re doing a record with House of Pain and doing four months worth of touring; we’re going to see where that goes. We’re committed to the project, absolutely, but at this point, in our reality, Everlast still does Everlast solo stuff. I still work on graphics and my clothing. Lethal is still in Limp Bizkit as well as House of Pain, as well as La Coka Nostra. Erik (Everlast) is in La Coka Nostra. I’m in La Coka Nostra. So we’ve got a lot of projects that run concurrent, and it kind of seems like we’ll do something, and at certain points we’ll feel like we hit a wall so we’ll say, “Okay, let’s go to La Coka Nostra,” or we’ll all go away and not call each other for 6 months and then we miss each other and come back. So it’s been good, we’ve been able to mutate and survive.
RM: So since you’ve taken on every form of being an artist, do you do the artwork for your merch?
DB: Yes, of course. But if I don’t do all of the artwork, our friend David Flores, or our other friends who do art will design.
RM: If they made a movie about you, who would you want to play you?
DB: My ego wants to say Mickey Rourke, but he’s, like, twice as old as me. He’s a good friend of mine; I’d actually like to play a younger him.
RM: What’s the last album you listened to in its entirety?
DB: Cypress Hill’s first record, like last week. Only for the fact that I thought to myself, there’s no good hip-hop out there right now. Someone asked me what new hip-hop I’m listening to and I had no idea. Because I’ve heard of Drake, but I don’t know what he sings. I don’t even know what Lil’ Wayne sings. If you put a gun to my head or gave me a bag with a million dollars and said just give me one song I would just start crying because I can’t give you one. I’m so out of touch…
RM: What was the first record you ever bought with your own money?
DB: Suicidal Tendencies. But with my mom’s money, my first album would have been Kiss’s Destroyer record, but it was sold out. And the cover for Boston’s self titled record looked the same with the same color scheme imagery so my mom said, “Let’s buy this one.”
RM: What was your first concert?
DB: I hate to admit it, but I think it was the Thompson Twins at the Hollywood Bowl. With the Weather Girls opening, they came out in blue sequins and they were doing their thing. At that point it was the early 80’s where the kids started going to concerts like Oingo Boingo and Thompson Twins at the Bowl or in the valley (Los Angeles) because we were too scared to go to punk shows alone. I had a mother who couldn’t be bothered with music or sports so I don’t have any experiences with and cool earlier shows like Kiss’s ’77 show at Madison Square Garden.
RM: What would you want written on your tombstone?
DB: These are all good questions; I wish I could give you better answers. I’m going to be spun out on these for a minute on what I wish I would have said. I don’t know…”Job well done,” hopefully. Either that or “Fine young man.” When I was in high school, I never dressed for P.E. and there was a guy, Mr. Gunney, who was a fucking military sergeant, flattop and all, who was so hardcore about everything. But he managed to never notice when you showed up or not and he’d stamp every report card with the same thing: “Fine Young Man.” So that was awesome. It was the only time I ever got a C. We took his class throughout high school because you were guaranteed a C. That was a high grade for me by the way. I left after 10th grade anyway.
RM: Who are you star struck by?
DB: At first, Madonna. Now…my fiancé would kill me if I say it but, Natalie Portman. My fiancé is inside and she is perfect in every way, which is funny how my Natalie thing gets under her skin, like she’s a threat or something. [laughs]
RM: Do you ever Google yourself?
DB: Yeah, all the time but not for my own pleasure. I do it strictly for art purposes.
RM: What was it like when House of Pain ended in 1996?
DB: I was crushed. I’m 6 years sober now but I went from getting paid to do nothing but rapping and getting paid for jumping around and all of a sudden you’re like, “I need to get a real what?” Then Lethal went to Limp Bizkit, which was the worst music I ever heard, and they sell 20-30 million records and are living in Tupac’s old mansion. I used to have all that. House of Pain made a lot of money; we made millions off merch, and kids went crazy for it. I was driving around in a Ferrari, hanging out with Mickey Rourke and all these actors, and people were wondering how I was doing all that. But, then it all came crashing down, and Everlast went and made a solo record and that sold 3 million copies and I’m sitting there going “what about me?” And I choked. So, I started doing coke first, then speed; speed hit Cali hard. I was hanging out with Tommy Lee and all these dudes and they were doing it like that, but the difference was they would do it and then be able to go to work. I’d do it and I’d go to jail. I’d do it and then go missing for 2 days. It took a long time, got sober for 3 years and then I thought I just had a problem with speed so I started to drink. It took me 3 years of spiraling out, and losing all my teeth and losing everything I had and living in a warehouse to get sober. And now next month on the 15th (April) will be 6 years. It was a long process but I prevailed.
RM: Lastly, what’s the best piece of advice you ever received?
DB: Okay, it’s genius: my mother, who I never really saw eye-to-eye with (we never really got along)… She never really recovered from my father’s murder, and my stepfather passing away at 35 from cirrhosis of the liver, and I watched her work all day, every day, raising two kids. And, although we didn’t get along, she said, “Follow your heart. Do what you love, and the money will follow,” and I was a dick and said. “What if it doesn’t?” She said, “Well, at least you did your life the way you wanted to, and you did what you loved.” We hadn’t talked for almost 10 years through the whole getting high and getting sober phase because I couldn’t be bothered, but in the last couple years everything kind of balanced out and I took my mom out and we went to lunch and she said, “I don’t get it, how do you do it? You haven’t worked since you were 16.” So I said, “Someone told me one time to do what you love and the money will follow.” She sat there and was thinking about it for a minute and looked at me. I said, “Yeah, you did.” And she was like, “Son of a bit…” Her face was priceless. It was kind of a little jab, but at the same time it was like “let me hug you.”
RM: It was a pleasure… We can’t wait to see tonight’s performance. Thank you for catching up pre-show. Have fun tonight!