Three Stacks hasn’t quite reached his happy place
In an exclusive interview with The New York Times, one-half of the legendary rap duo Outkast, Andre 3000, spoke out on some of the issues and emotions that have been plaguing him as he’s placed himself in the public eye more than he’s had in almost a decade with Outkast’s reunion tour, that began in April and will wrap up in October. Critics, fans and bloggers all noticed an obvious down-and-out mood about 3000 the first night of the tour, at Coachella Music Festival in April, and Andre took the time to address that in a conversation with the Times’ Jon Caramanica. He touched on several other topics, including the upcoming Jimi Hendrix biopic, the solo album that’s been “coming soon” for the last half-decade, his apology to Big Boi on T.I.‘s “Sorry” and the effect Erykah Badu had on his life. Check out an excerpt below, and read the full interview here.
On the T.I. song “Sorry,” you have a line apologizing to Big Boi about leaving a lot of money on the table over the years.
When you started the tour, was it difficult to be onstage after so long?
Yeah, I think people could see it at Coachella, the very first show. It was foreign. My head wasn’t there. I kind of fluffed through rehearsals. A few hours before the Coachella show, I get a message that Prince and Paul McCartney are going to be there. My spirit is not right, and idols are standing side-stage, so as the show started, I’m bummed. This is horrible. In my mind I was already gone to my hotel room halfway through. So Prince called a couple days after. It was my first time actually talking to Prince. He said: “When you come back, people want to be wowed. And what’s the best way to wow people? Just give them the hits.”
I’m explaining to him that I really didn’t want to do it. He said: “I’ve been there. I’ve tried to do other things. After you give them the hits, then you can do whatever.”
