The Remote Island by Bryan Christian The burning question of the day: Life on Mars or Eleventh Hour? Plus: Britney goes on the record, USA may not renew Monk, and our Grey's Anatomy recap.
G. Love is full of contradictions. He's a self-proclaimed sex addict with traditional family values, a white, middle-class kid from Philly with a southern drawl. He's got a gift for mixing delta blues, R & B, hip-hop and reggae with real soul, yet he bobs around stage like a goofy dashboard dog. And for a super-cool, super-laid-back, musical hipster, he's quite the giddy gossiper. One mention of sex, and he opened the floodgates like a patient who hadn't seen his therapist in years. We almost forgot about Electric Mile, his latest album recorded with his band, Special Sauce, and the national tour they just kicked off. But even the topic of venues filled with screaming fans pales as a conversation starter compared to seventh-grade seduction tips, Chi preservation and the oedipal undertones of one's current relationship. Lorelei Sharkey
Lorelei Sharkey: With a name like G. Love, a pet name seems kind of gratuitous, but have you had any good ones?
G.Love: G Spot. That was in high school.
LS: I have a friend who went to high school with you. He said you were popular with the girls because you were good-looking and a little bit of a prick, as high school boys are wont to be. Any truth to that?
GL: Well, in junior high I really started wailing on the ladies. I was always very sexual and very open about sex from an early age. I was the first dude to admit that I jerked off. I remember I'd be down in the lunch room sayin', "Tell me you don't jerk off." And everyone'd be like, "No, no, I never did that." And I'm like, "You're in seventh or eighth grade and you never jerked off? Yeah, right."
LS: So how old were you when you cashed in your V-Card?
GL: Well, seventh grade was the bar mitzvah year, and we'd go out into the field or wherever you could go, and get busy. One of my sayings from that era was "Tongue in, hand up" like the minute you went in for the French kiss, put the hand right up the shirt. But then I fell in love with this girl, Phoebe Washburn. She was in seventh grade and it was the spring and she had never done anything. I still hadn't gone all the way, but I'd done everything else. We went out for the next two and a half years. She was great. We were so in love. Over the course of those two and a half years we went all the way. I wrote a lot of really great songs about her that I still play.
LS: Do you have ladies from your past trying to get in touch now?
GL: Yeah man, it can be really sketchy. I have a girlfriend now, Nisa; she's pregnant, we're having a baby in July. We love each other a lot, but there's been a lot of ups and downs. We're not married yet. We're not going to get married 'till we're both actually ready. But we're together; we live together. Anyhow, she doesn't trust me. We started seeing each other off a one-night stand, so I wasn't straight off the bat faithful to her. It's hard when you start dating somebody and you're not monogamous; its hard to all of a sudden make a switch, like "From today, from now on, I'm monogamous." My girlfriend's still kinda scarred by the shit that I've been notorious for in my past, my hookin' up. There were times when I was very promiscuous.
LS: Being on the road, being in front of all those people, it must be pretty easy . . .
GL: There's two things you can pretty much get every night if you want: sex and weed. [laughs] When I came out with my first record seven years ago, it was just [snaps]! Before that: no pussy. I couldn't get a date to save my life. After I hit a record deal: "Blam!" There were a lot of backstage possibilities and I was like, "Cha-ching!" So that shit still comes back to haunt me. I've been with so many girls, I never know at what time it could come back to fuck up my vibe.
LS: Is it like the rock 'n roll cliché where you get all this action but you're still so lonely, or is it still pretty damn good?
GL: It is kinda lonely. It's kinda fucked up. When I started my music career, I traded in this serious love affair I was in at the time, 'cause once I was on the road, it was clear to her that I was cheating. And it was clear to me that I couldn't be faithful. And then it just fell apart. Sometimes I'd be just slutting myself around, hooking up with lots of girls, and other times there'd be someone I'd meet and I'd think, "Oh my god, if only we lived in the same town." I know I've met girls that I could've fallen so in love with if I was a regular person living in a regular town. You hear all these rap songs and shit saying things like "You know I don't love those ho's and I'm a player . . . " Well I am a player but
LS: But you love those ho's!
GL:That's what I'm saying, I love those ho's. [laughs] It was never cold for me, even the one-night stands. They were a chance for me to be very intimate with someone on an emotional and physical level. But because I was just projecting that intimacy and emotion, it was kinda vapid. And at the end of the day, it'll really drain you. So, I couldn't talk to regular girls, 'cause I was used to getting it so easy. And the really perfect cover girl that I was just waiting to walk backstage, she never walked backstage.
LS: Do you ever worry about STDs?
GL: Definitely. I always worry about that shit. We had a good sex ed class in our school, and man, whenever I heard about some new disease in eighth grade, I'd be buggin'. I had an AIDS test in eighth grade because of a handjob.
LS: Do you rely on sexual tension or frustration or energy to inspire you?
GL: Yeah, well, I have this book of yoga, about sex and saving your Chi energy, because every time you come some of your vital energy drains out of you
LS: Do you deny yourself release?
GL: Yeah, sometimes I do. Especially if I'm jerking off. Sometimes, you can have an orgasm and not come. Like with your three fingers, you push onto this vein [demonstrates over his pants] and you will orgasm without ejaculating and that's something I will do a lot.
LS: Why do you do it?
GL: I've got to release some tension because I'm a sex addict, but I've got to preserve my Chi energy. I'm actually probably sick. It's like a drug for me. It gets to the point where I could be totally exhausted, hanging out with my friends and just fuckin' . . .
LS: Just fucking. Period.
GL: Well, check this out. I have no shame in my game. I've done fucked up things. I've walked sexual paths that most people don't even think about. When we first used to go to Europe, we'd go to the red light districts in every town. I'd come home from a full night of partying with my friends, get home at like two or three, and then all of a sudden I'd be alone and this demon would come out. I'd just fuckin' smoke a joint and get my fuckin' clothes on and go out and walk around and look at hookers, you know what I'm saying? Weird shit. Crazy shit. I don't do that shit as much anymore really, now that I'm settling down with my wife.
LS: To-be.
GL: My wife-to-be, yeah. But man, she knows I'm a freak . . . yeah, sexual addiction. That's something that sometimes has affected my music, because a lot of sexual energy is white; if you think about the way your energy burns, that shit burns hot and fast. There are times I've been on tour when a lot of the energy I coulda been puttin' on stage I was blowin' on just feeling guilty about my sexual activities or just feeling dirty.
LS: Would you call your music sexy or sexual?
GL: Yeah, definitely. I was definitely being very sexual when I cut the vocals on "Shy Girl" on my new record. Like rubbin' myself and givin' myself all kinds of love, making love to myself. [starts rubbing himself all over] The producer's like, "Are you all right out there?" I'm just rubbin' my whole body and thinking, Awww, yeah.
LS: On the new album, the song "100 Magic Rings" who is that about?
GL: That was written for Nisa.
LS: In it you sing, "She acts like a woman, and lets me be a man." What does that mean exactly?
GL: I'm kind of a traditional guy. My dad worked and my mom took care of us. And she did an incredible job. So now I make enough money so that I can support my family. Not that I'm ever against a woman having her own career, I think that's great. My girlfriend is younger and just figuring out what she wants to do; she hasn't graduated from college, she doesn't have a career. She's actually more like my mom. Basically it's just, "Let me take care of the business of making us money and making sure everything is cool. You make sure that our life is organized so that I can focus on my music, which in turn makes our life more comfortable. And makes me happy." And hopefully that makes her happy.
LS: So do you prefer sex in bed?
GL: Me and my girlfriend, we mostly have sex in bed, sometimes on the living room floor. But I think because of all the shit that I've done, she doesn't really feel good about getting it on backstage, or getting it on in the bus, because she knows that I've done all that. So she's not down with that. Which I respect, that's cool.
LS: What do you like best about your bedroom?
GL: [long pause] I don't know.
LS: It's a trick question.
GL: What do I like most about my bedroom? Probably just cuddling.
Anyhow, she doesn't trust me. We started seeing each other off a one-night stand, so I wasn't straight off the bat faithful to her. It's hard when you start dating somebody and you're not monogamous; its hard to all of a sudden make a switch, like "From today, from now on, I'm monogamous." My girlfriend's still kinda scarred by the shit that I've been notorious for in my past, my hookin' up. There were times when I was very promiscuous.
, featuring curious yet marvelous infusions of cucumber and rose petal.
