The Ice Age

After a lost weekend that became a lost decade, the career of the artist known as Vanilla Ice was said to be over. This week he returns to Australia for a New Year's Eve show. He talks to Time Out about his return, and what happened while he was away.

It sounds like you're enjoying making music again.
Oh I love it, man. I love it more today than I ever have, because I can do what I want. I was like a puppet at one time, for the record companies and the industry - they were pulling all the strings and I was like a rag doll... Now I do what I want at my own pace. You don't have all this pressure on you.

The speed of your rise to the top must have put amazing pressure on you.
It was so incredibly... I couldn't expect it or predict it. The thing took on a life of its own, so to speak. I just had to ride the wave - I couldn't jump off. Wherever that wave took me, that's where I was.

Do you think the music you're making now speaks more to who you are?
Not necessarily. Basically what happened is, I had a weekend that lasted a few years. I was caught up in the famous rock star shit - the drugs, the alcohol, and all that mess. This was back in '94. I had over 50 million bucks and I still couldn't buy myself happiness. It's hard for people to feel sorry for you, hard for them to understand you're depressed with 50 million bucks in the bank. Most people have never had that kind of money, so they're thinking: "Fuck, if I had that kind of money, I'd be happy. I could have the car I want, and a yacht and mansion, and have hot chicks in the hot tubs." You think you can buy all your happiness and shit, but you can't. Of course I did all that stuff, but at the same time, you run out of things to do after you've had it all. Know what I mean? When you've had all that, you become very depressed and bored with life. What pulled me through was basically family and friends.

Have you drawn on being in those dark places in your music?
Absolutely. Hell yeah. I had to, man. I had to exorcise those demons. Music is my therapy, without a doubt. The greatest thing of all is that people can embrace it, by tapping into your life through the music, and somehow relate it to their life. I have almost like a subculture following in the States; these people are 16 to 24 years old. They're aware of 'Ice Ice Baby', but they're most in tune with what I've been doing lately. They've got Vanilla Ice tattoos - they know more shit about me than I know... back in the day when I was playing stadiums in Australia, I'd perform in front of 100,000 people, 30,000 people or whatever, and they'd rush me off stage, and then you're on the aeroplane onto the next gig. You never meet anybody, you never to get to stop and shake a hand. Now, with what I'm doing, I get to do that. That's gratifying for me.

Instant Expert - Vanilla Ice

1 He once boxed Willis from Diff'rent Strokes  In 2002, the star appeared on the Fox reality series Celebrity Boxing. Despite claiming he had a solid left hook, Van Winkle was iced by actor Todd Bridges, who won a unanimous points decision after several knockdowns.

2 He appeared in Madonna's controversial book SEX Ice had an eight month long relationship with the Queen of Pop, which he claims he ended after the release of her book of erotic photos. He maintains he had no idea he was posing for the book, and that the photos of him cavorting with the naked popstar were taken while they were "messing around".

3 He trashed an MTV set - twice In 1999, Ice agreed to appear on a show called MTV's 25 Lame, celebrating the stations worst videos. He was supposed to destroy a video of 'Ice Ice Baby', but took a baseball bat to the entire set as well. He then used a drum kit to destroy another MTV set, this time on The Surreal Life, after he was voted off the programme by the pornstar Ron Jeremy. He claims the two are good friend again.

4 He has two daughters Called Dusti Raine and Keelee Breeze.

5 His movie is considered one of the worst of all time With just a 2.1 rating on IMDB.com, Cool as Ice reaped critical and public derision. But its cinematographer went on to shoot Schindler's List.

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