MTV: At the end of your book ["King of Rock: Respect, Responsibility and My Life With Run-DMC"], you talk about how these last five years have been the worst. Why is that?

DMC: It has been the worst five years of my life. A lot of people that I have been dealing with didn't want to jump up and address things and do what was natural. I was like, "Hey, I want to do this Run-DMC album, I don't think I'm able to do it." "Oh, don't worry about that. Let us handle it. Just come along for the ride." You can't have a person there and not have their whole being there. I want to do things that help me express who I am and I want to do that freely and happily, and for the last five years, [I've been hearing] "This person wants that. Oh, you can't do this."

I'm happy with maturing and growing older now. I'm 36 years old. "Oh, you can't say that. That's not going to sell a record. Oh, that's not cool. What is this person going to think? What is that person going to think?" I don't care what people think.

Everyone wants me to be the same person I was in the '80s, and I realize that I can't do that. I'm not 18 no more. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't sniff no cocaine, I ain't running around driving to parties. I ain't doing all the things that I used to do, and it seems like a lot of people are disappointed because of that. Like, "Can't you ... ?" No, I can't.

MTV: The video for your first solo single, "Cadillac Cars," tells people where you are spiritually.

DMC: I've gotta tell people what I'm doing now and what I'm experiencing now, what am I thinking now. I'm content with maturing. I'm content with being a middle-aged b-boy.

MTV: The song has a folk, country-rock feel.

DMC: That's what I want to go into right now. I listen to Neil Young. He's one of my all-time favorites. John Lennon is like my god. I love him and I love everything that he stood for, even after he left the Beatles. He started making records for purpose and meaning, trying to change things in the world. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Pink Floyd, [The Rolling] Stones, these are the types of backgrounds and backdrops and formats and platforms and canvases that I want to use to put my lyrics on right now.

[I've got a] banjo player, I got my harmonica, got my DJ, got my drummer, got my guitar. It's like I'm a little kid — I'm excited. I've got something to look forward to. We're getting ready to rock. We're getting ready to bring it to you like Creedence Clearwater Revival. I have something new, and I'm eager too. Like when I used to write my rhymes when I was young, I heard the Cold Crush [Brothers]. I used to be a DJ, but then I heard the Cold Crush and I wanted to rap. And up until ... let's say '94, there was an eagerness and a desire.

MTV: Are you not 100% behind this Run-DMC record?

DMC: I am 100% behind the record, but how can a person be behind [something] 100% if they're not really there in the first place? I could have been like, "Take my name off the album, I ain't with none of this," but one of my problems is that I'm a nice guy. I don't want to ruin anything that the record company or what Run and Jay — with all the produced hits and all the guests on the album — are trying to accomplish. I went at the beginning of the thing and said, "Hold it. I can't support that, I'm not feeling that, I don't want to rap like that, I don't want to look like that, I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to use that music, I want to use this music. I want to use a live band." I have other things that I need to let out of me right now. Which was totally contrary to what the Run-DMC album wanted to accomplish.

MTV: How much of you is on this record?

DMC: On a scale compared to every album back in the day, 30% is me.

MTV: Was it all of you guys coming as Run-DMC and then the guest artist [adding their parts], or was it the guest artist coming together with your material and seeing what works?

DMC: It was more, "Get that guy. That will work. This will look good on the video. This will sell." Actually, I don't know what the hell it was, 'cause nobody came to me and sat down and said, "All right, here's the game plan and this and that. What do you think?" Now it's like, "Where's D at? Is D on the damn record?" People want to take from me what they want as opposed to using what I have to offer. You know it couldn't work like that.

MTV: Were you really hurt when they didn't want to use [your new] material?

DMC: No, not at all, 'cause I'm a man and I know it is not meant to be. If you want to be down with me, you got to take everything that is coming with me, the good and the bad. You just can't have DMC without having what I am thinking in my mind and in my heart. Basically that is what made Run-DMC. Run was always Run. I was always D, quiet, never saying nothing, until it's time to get on the mic.

MTV: Have you shot any videos for this album?

DMC: We got two that we did, and they wanted me to do a third one. I made the "Let's Stay Together" one, 'cause it was really easy for me [because] Run, he wrote a rap about "Yo D, you know I love you, let's stay together, man. You know you're my homey." It really touched me. So I said, "All right, I'll do that video."

We're not gonna break up, 'cause the thing that we did up until [1993's] Down With the King album, you could cut my tongue off, take my brain out, and rip my eyes out and we'll still be able to tune it forever. We're like the Rolling Stones of hip-hop.

MTV: Is your voice holding up OK? You mentioned going to see a vocal coach.

DMC: I go to vocal coaches ... all type of stuff is going on right now. Basically I've just gotta be very, very careful of what I do. But it's not going to stop me from doing what I love to do. It's more of, "Oh, D can't rap no more, his voice is gone" this is what everybody else is saying. But the doctor hasn't told me that, and I'm not going to tell myself that. I just gotta deal with it day by day.