| |  | | Pak: Who had the idea for the "Hero" video?
Iglesias: [Director] Joseph [Kahn]. He called me and said, "I want to do a mini-movie. I want to put a storyline to the song." I got afraid when he said that, because there's only four minutes to tell a story. It can either come out real good, or real corny. But I believed in him. We've got actors in it like Mickey Rourke and Jennifer Love Hewitt, and that's what makes it good.
Pak: Do you think the terrorist attacks might change the kind of music artists make or the kind of music people want to hear?
Iglesias: When I was playing that tribute to heroes ... you know what I felt? It's not like my music always has to be so meaningful. But watching Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel sing their songs, I wondered, "What makes them legends?" It's because they have songs with a lot of meaning. I want songs like that. Not all my songs have to be like that, but I want songs that are going to define my career. Songs like "Hero." I want songs I know I will be able to sing 10 years from now, and people are going to come see me just to hear me sing that song.
Pak: Is this album the one that's most "you"?
Iglesias: It's just a crazier album. It's a funnier album. It's a lot more aggressive. I worked with so many different people and in so many different styles ... there's not one song that unifies the sound of the album.
Pak: When you were working on it, did you ever worry about losing fans by being too different?
Iglesias: I don't care, but I'll tell you why. When I'm doing an album, I don't like to think, "Are my fans going to like this?" I don't like to think about that, because then I'll go nuts and it won't be real. I want to do an album that feels good for me. If it feels good for me, and then it feels good for the people, that's a perfect connection.
Pak: It jumps from different beats and different tempos so often. Just when you think that you know what's next, you switch directions. Was that a conscious decision?
Iglesias: It was. That's why I named it Escape. You know when you're in a car and put on an album and you just forget about everything? That's what I wanted to do with this album. I want people to listen to it in the car, or in their houses, and not skip from song to song. [I wanted it to] just take them somewhere else and [allow them to] escape.
Pak: What are some of your favorite tracks?
Iglesias: "Hero" is a special song. It's one of those songs that I wrote in about an hour, and once it was done, it created such satisfaction. Then there's the more uptempo songs that I love listening to: "Don't Turn Off the Lights," "Escape," or something a little more soulful, like "Love to See You Cry." I like when you can imagine what a song is going to be like live and how the audience is going to react to it.
Writing songs all night, being intimidated by Johnny Depp and straddling the international male divide ... NEXT 
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