Authors: Danny White
Will.i.am
First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
Michael O’Mara Books Limited
9 Lion Yard
Tremadoc Road
London SW4 7NQ
Copyright © Michael O’Mara Books Limited 2012
All rights reserved. You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-78243-003-2 in hardback print format
ISBN: 978-1-78243-004-9 in trade paperback format
ISBN: 978-1-78243-019-3 in EPub format
ISBN: 978-1-78243-020-9 in Mobipocket format
Designed and typeset by Design 23, London
W
ill’s single ‘Reach for the Stars’ is, on its surface, about space travel. With its grand, orchestral opening it has an iconic,
Hollywood feel from the start. It was chosen to become the first song to be played on Mars, its cleverly named ‘universal premiere’ taking place in August 2012. The song’s
significance in Will’s story goes beyond that though – its lyrics almost reflect the mission statement that has guided his life. He has always refused to accept that the sky is the
limit, and the personal universe he operates within has always been a vast arena.
Whatever he has achieved in his life, he has responded to each achievement by aiming ever higher. Even his clothing range, deliberately evocative of an intergalactic superhero, fits with the
song’s science-fiction atmosphere. His life story to date also tallies with the title of the song in another sense: a ravenous and successful networker, Will has reached for many stars for
collaboration and discovered – to his delight
– that many were only too happy to meet his grasp.
And the public, it seems, is no less attracted to him. Why does he enchant us so?
The answer can be found, in part, in the way he runs against the grain of twenty-first-century celebrity culture. In an age in which people can become famous with precious little talent or
justification, Will’s abilities shine. Although still in his thirties, in addition to his role as frontman of the planet-conquering supergroup The Black Eyed Peas, he has proven himself to be
a fine solo artist; a distinguished and in-demand producer; a manager; actor; designer; businessman and philanthropist. He is also a popular reality-television coach, thanks to his memorable
presence on the first series of BBC One’s primetime Saturday night TV show
The Voice
.
He has approached all of his endeavours with only the highest success in mind. In his autobiography,
Fallin’ Up
, his Black Eyed Peas bandmate, Taboo, summed-up Will’s
approach to life well, ‘He never walked on the playing field to be a participant, he walked on with a desire to be the greatest. Number one. Unrivalled. That was the pressure he exerted on
himself. Always.’ If he has not deserved his fame through all these channels of activity, it is hard to see how he ever will. He has earned a substantial personal fortune. The scale of it is
disputed but it is generally
believed to be not far either side of £50 million.
There is more to his appeal than all that, though. Will’s admirers love his relentless positivity, particularly as he has come to their attention during such uncertain and unsettling
times. Since the turn of the century, the threat of terror, renewed global tensions, environmental turmoil and the economic downturn have left the public keen for messages of hope and
encouragement. Indeed, it is no coincidence that Will played such a large part in the 2008 election campaign for Barack Obama. The Democrat leader’s slogans of positivity and hope chimed deep
within Will’s own psyche. Will also forms a refreshing, some might say old-fashioned contrast to the tendency of many modern celebrities to ‘overshare’ their personal peccadilloes
and dramas to an almost grotesque degree. Will’s mysterious private life intrigues us – all the more so due to the enthusiasm with which many of his contemporaries air their every dirty
garment in public. Indeed, even his catchy stage name of ‘will.i.am’ serves as a veil between the real Will and the public: removing that veil is difficult yet rewarding.
In the pages ahead we will explore the differences between will.i.am and William James Adams Jr, and where one begins and the other ends. Until now, his private life has mostly been an enigma,
and that suits him just fine. He is a stranger to scandal in large part because he rarely
allows himself enough spare time to get into any scrapes. Pressed by a newspaper
journalist over why he did not – as far as the public is concerned – have a girlfriend, Will said: ‘I’m too busy turning my dreams into reality.’ It was a slightly
self-aggrandizing reply, an evasive one even, but it was no less truthful for that. In common with a growing number of twenty-first-century celebrities, Will has built a life for himself into which
a significant other would find it hard to fit. Work and creativity always come first.
Indeed, while it is a comparison that neither man may enjoy after they fell out over the role of Will’s client Cheryl Cole in the American series of
The X Factor
, Will’s
personal life can be understood to a large extent by comparing it with that of Simon Cowell. Both men are tireless workaholics who are so busy and industrious that they have little time to fully
mourn their lack of a consistent ‘significant other’. A more influential similarity between the men is one that makes their chances of settling down in the future unlikely: both are
beautifully hopeless mummy’s boys. Will can scarcely complete an interview with the media without praising his mother, Debra. When he wants to praise someone, he does so by comparing them
with Debra. He values her advice even as he approaches his forties. He might never meet a woman who he will admire more than his mother; a large part of him does not want to.
Like all true eccentrics, he seems blissfully unaware of what an eccentric he is. The kookiness of his dress, lifestyle and language all come naturally to him. It is little
surprise that longstanding Anglophile Will is fast becoming an honorary Englishman: indeed he is like a rapping, African-American twist on the classic, eccentric English gentleman. Boy, can he
talk: he has been described as ‘a quote monster’. A loquacious, fast-talking and fast-thinking man, he never knowingly under talks. Annabel Rivkin, who interviewed him for
ES
magazine, recalled how his ‘verbal floodgates fly open and all of a sudden he’s on a manifesto-centric roll, holding forth, twitchy, lyrical, cheeky. It’s over-stimulating
stuff.’ Another writer described an encounter with him as ‘frazzling’, and ‘mildly exhausting’.
Sometimes, though, he is more concise. Asked which phrase he uses too often, Will quickly identified his favourite one. Keen viewers of
The Voice
, who noted with growing amusement how
often he used the slang term ‘dope’ (meaning good; great), will be surprised that he does not consider that his most over-used saying. Instead, the words Will just cannot stop using
are: ‘That’s crazy.’ Perhaps when he does use that phrase, he is reflecting not just on the moment, but on his whole life story.
I
n 2006, the Black Eyed Peas were visiting an impoverished neighbourhood in Soweto, South Africa, when the band became surrounded by kids. Lifting
the arm of a fourteen-year-old boy, Will told the excitable ensemble, ‘He is fourteen. When I was fourteen, I started a group that became the Black Eyed Peas. I, too, came from a poor
background. But I have made it – and so can you!’
His positive energy and powers of inspiration have been noted, lauded and enjoyed by many. Will believes he inherited them from the person who inspires
him
more than anyone: his mother,
Debra. ‘She’s supermom and also my best friend,’ he told the
Sun
. ‘I love her. You should see the text messages she sends me.’ One such message read,
‘No matter how successful you are, we are still struggling,’ Will described messages such as that from his mother as ‘like an ego smack – great reminders of where you are
from and where you are in the world. Mom made me think anything
was possible.’ The struggle that his mother alludes to is real, and Will’s positivity cannot conceal
the challenges he has been through from the start of his life.
People often ask him which nationality he is. His answer is very simple: ‘I’m an American.’ For him, the commonplace description ‘African American’ is not an
option. ‘When you ask the black guy in Brazil what nationality he is, he doesn’t say, “African Brazilian”,’ reasoned Will in
O
magazine. ‘He says,
“Brazilian”. Someone doesn’t say, “I’m African English”. They’re English.’ Will knows his ancestors came from Africa but he does not know from which
part of the continent they hail, so he prefers to consider himself simply American, ‘the way jazz and blues are American music. The way peach cobbler is an American dessert.’ His
choices of imagery reflect a kooky dimension to his love of America – and indeed to much of his life. Will is not acting when he comes across this way: he is an authentic eccentric.
He was born on 15 March 1975, and that year, the world he was born into was twisting to a soundtrack dominated by Bruce Springstreen’s ‘Born in the USA’,
Jaws, The
Godfather Part II and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
were the big movies of the year, and Muhammad Ali was in his ascendancy in the boxing ring. It was also a significant year in terms
of American foreign policy: the Vietnam War came to an end and the US pulled out of Cambodia. President
Gerald Ford was in the White House.
His date of birth makes Will a Pisces. He is a keen believer in many spiritual and esoteric trends, and astrology is one of them. As he knows, among the many positive traits associated with
Pisceans are adaptability, devotion and imagination. Whether or not one shares his belief in astrology, it is clear that Will has displayed each of these characteristics. Compassion is another
virtue with which Pisceans are linked. As we shall see, Will has also shown plenty of that. Less positive characteristics Pisceans are said to portray include over-sensitiveness, indecision and
laziness. But even Will’s fiercest critics would struggle to build a case that the restless, workaholic Will is in any way lazy, even emotionally. Indeed, his sensitive nature is clear, and
is perhaps the price that he pays for such a creative and imaginative mind.
He was born and raised in east Los Angeles, in a district called Boyle Heights. The impoverished, rough neighbourhood in which he grew up created hardships for Will, but it would also provide
rich inspiration for his future creative work in the Black Eyed Peas and beyond. For instance, the fact his was the only black family in the area continues to resonate with Will to this day. How
could that band ever have convincingly rocked the ‘misfit’ image, had its pivotal member not grown up as an outsider himself?
The project he lived in was called Estrada Court. Will, who has never met his father, was raised by his mother, Debra, in a large family. Debra has four biological children
and ultimately adopted another four kids. ‘I have two brothers and a sister, and Mom adopted two other girls when they were infants; then she just recently adopted two other boys, who are six
and seven,’ he told the
Guardian
. Will’s father, a maintenance worker called William Sr, had left the family between Will’s conception and birth. Before Will himself
could escape the Estrada Court Housing Project physically, he did his best to do so emotionally. We all love to dream as children. Will still does: ‘You get to mould your reality. If I
didn’t mould my reality then I’d still be in the ghetto where people like me are supposed to stay. You have to dream your way out of the nightmare.’