Music

He’s excited about playing the Roundhouse
‘Didn’t the Ramones have a show there that had a big impact on a lot of people? I heard that like, most of the British punk bands were formed at that show. Well, let’s hope we don’t drag the good name of the Roundhouse down into the dirt.’

He can’t tell whether UK press likes him or not
‘It seems like the music press will do one thing, like Melody Maker and all that, and the tabloids will start writing negative stuff. It’s swung back and forth more than a few times.’
Feature continues

He doesn’t understand the band’s early success either
‘"Licensed To Ill" is a weird record. It’s kind of a surprise that it jumped into the mainstream in the way it did. It’s a bizarre record, but it hit a nerve.’

The band’s next album, ‘Paul’s Boutique’, was buried by the nefarious machinations of Donny Osmond…
‘We went in to meet the head of the label and told him we were really excited, and he just said: “Nah, forget it. We have a new Donny Osmond record coming out next week.” We’re still ready to go at it, if Donny still wants to. We’ll have an MC battle with him right now.’

He fought the first court case to use the word ‘sampling’
‘I think so, anyway. There weren’t any real precedents for that stuff and there was no terminology, and we had to figure it out. And now it’s just a mess.’

He’d actually love to play China
‘I hope we do, at some point. I’d love to. I’m not sure if they would let us in or not because of the Tibetan Freedom Concerts.’

He feels some responsibility for the rise of rap-rock
'Goatee metal? Yeah, well if we can get a plaque for that we can hang up in the studio, that’d be nice. A mounted Fred Durst head, that’d be nice.'

He hasn’t yet adjusted to being an ‘elder statesman’ of rap
'It is weird, you see kids in the audience who are younger than the band. The band’s been together for like, 26, 27 years, and there are kids out in the audience who are teenagers. It’s extreme to think that when they were growing up, a lot of those albums were already old news.'

He owes Time Out a hydraulic penis, bought from the band in Lisbon many years ago…
‘The collective band’s one? How much did you buy it for? One dollar? What’s the exchange rate with that? Well, you know, we’ve had it in storage, so that means you’re paying the storage charges, so you owe us quite a bit of money. It’s in good shape, though. We take it out every now and then and test the hydraulics, so it’s in working order.’

The Beastie Boys play Brixton Academy on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the Roundhouse on Thursday