Gray: It's a cool little love song. It's about my first real, real, real, real love. It's like when you get to that level with that person where it's just all about you and him — what's going on in the outside world is secondary. That's nice.

MTV: You've got Erykah Badu on there. How did that come about?

Gray: Erykah's a friend of mine. I went to see her at a show in Vegas and I was hanging at a sound check and I asked if she would come and sing on the album. She wanted to sing on the single; she was real particular about that. She came in and I didn't know what she was going to do, because it's not an Erykah Badu-style song at all. She heard it and she went "doo ba, doo ba, doo." It sounds like a cartoon song, but she hooked it up. She worked all night and came back the next day to perfect it. [RealVideo]

MTV: Why did you want to work with Rick Rubin? That's a move that people might not expect.

Gray: We had gotten through 75 percent of the album and me and Daryle had one song that had, like, 28 tracks of just backup vocals. One song had 12 reels, which is insane! That's 1,000 tracks. Rick just kinda came in because he's a mentor more than anything else. He just says, "That's cool." Because he's Rick, you believe him. I got to know him a little bit, and I was really flattered that he wanted to be a part of it. I told him that I wanted to get John Frusciante on the album and he just made one phone call. I said, "I want Billy Preston," and it's like room service. He's got access to everything in the music business and everybody respects him. That's a real cool dude to have in your corner.

MTV: How about hooking up Frusciante? Why did you want him on your album?

Gray: I just love the way he plays. I always have. I think he's got a real cool sound, and it was just interesting to have his flavor on that song. It's a simple song, and he's got this nice ruggedness to the way he plays. He came down and there's this whole movie [-size entourage] when he walks in. He has a million techs and they all come in hours before he does and they set up. Then he comes in, right on time, which is very inspirational to me, because I never am, and nobody else I work with really is. The session was at 10 o'clock, and John was there at 9:59. He sits on the floor and he does a yoga move [every time he takes a break]. It's like a sitcom. It was very visual.

MTV: There's a lot of humor to the record, some serious laugh-out-loud moments. "Oblivion" has kind of a circus-y feel, with some really fun lyrics. What was it like recording that one?

Gray: There's this theater in Chicago called the Aragon Ballroom, and we play there every time we do Chicago. The stage manager has this wild organ that took him five years to build and it's hooked up to all these pipes. There's pipes all around the ceiling; the wall is lined with organ pipes that he's collected over the years. The organ is connected to all these pipes. That whole track is [played on that] organ. Crazy, crazy sounds. We recorded that in the basement and did the vocals in Hollywood.

MTV: Why did you want to cover Slick Rick's "The World Is Yours"?

Gray: I took little parts, little phrases and made it into my own song. Ahmir [?uestlove from the Roots] is playing the drums and it's really awesome. We gave it a waltz beat and just flipped the song. The main reason we did it was 'cause of what it says. It's talking to kids, [saying] simple things like, "Respect your mom. Don't be a fool. Don't ditch school. Don't follow those dopes. Don't admire thieves, they don't admire you." Simple phrases to live by, without preaching. The fact that he wrote it makes him one of the best lyricists that ever lived.

MTV: You have a part in the upcoming film "Training Day." What was that like?