Speak of the Devil

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Andre 3000

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BIG BOI For the next record, I'm definitely wanting to go bug Kate Bush. People can't believe that I listen to that, but she's, like, my favorite artist in the world, [along with] Marley and Curtis Mayfield. She has one of the cleanest voices I've ever heard, aside from Aretha Franklin. Her music just brings out emotion. I used to listen to it a lot back in middle school. I still do.

ANDRE How about Sun Ra?

DAVE [Enthusiastically] Saw him twice.

PINK Never heard of him. S-U-N R-A? [She borrows Dre's marker and writes the name on her forearm in inch-high block letters.]

BIG BOI [Skeptically] I tried to get into it...

ANDRE He was dressing up in that space-age s -- -before George Clinton and P-Funk. He was way before that.

DAVE I heard he learned to play the piano in one day. That's a whole mystery story, and I'm not sure if I buy it...

ANDRE The way he played, that crazy s -- -, it sounds like it! [Dave dissolves in a fit of laughter.] It ain't like he Thelonius Monk!

DAVE The one nobody would listen to that I think is a big influence on me...it keeps coming to my mind, even though I don't feel cool as the wind about it...[hesitating] John Denver.

PINK I'm a die-hard fan. My dad sang me to sleep every night with John Denver and Don McLean.

DAVE He just knew how to write tunes, man. Good God. I don't care if he was the happiest, Kermit the Frog-looking dude. He looked exactly like Kermit, and that was why he was always on The Muppets. You can go to Zimbabwe, and go, ''Thank God I'm a...'' and everybody would go, ''...country boy!'' They might not even speak English but they'd know West Virginia because of him. He's one of those weird guys who crept all over the planet. Everybody knew John Denver.

ANDRE Except me. But hey, as long as it's a great melody...

DAVE Oh, he's got great melodies. It's like simple melodies that'll make you want to punch him. You know that kind of melody? ''I like it -- Goddamn it! I'm angry that it makes me feel good.''

PINK [To Andre] If I have to listen to f -- -in' Prince, then you're gonna listen to some damn John Denver!