I grew up on my dad’s sets, but I was never star-struck or desperate to be famous. I grew up being a worker. It took me a long time to realise that my work ended up being seen by people. As far as I was concerned, I was just in the family business.
My father came from a very poor background, but I was very fortunate in the sense that we were never in need. My dad was determined to make sure that we didn’t want for things. He wanted to give us more opportunity than he had, a better shot at a better life.
I used to go to work with Dad on the weekend. We’d drive past an indoor go-kart track every now and then, and we went there a few times. I was never tall enough, so I always left upset. I think I was seven when I was the right height, and I was like, ‘Please let me have a go.’ It was love at first sight.
Most of the time, the lyrics are kind of like my secret messages to my friends or my boyfriend or my mom or my dad. I would never tell them that these songs are about them or which specific lyric is about somebody. Often, when I sit down to write a lyric, it is in the heat of the moment, and something has just happened.
I play bass. I play a bit of guitar. I’ve never been to a lesson, so my theory of music is non-existent in any instrument, but we always had guitars around. My dad taught me to play drums for ‘Love Actually,’ and I still play drums now. But I’m not a ‘drummer.’ I’m not a ‘guitarist.’ I’m trying to be a bassist.
My dad, Bob Blum, used to dash across Grand Central’s main terminal catwalk several times daily as a young CBS correspondent, running copy from newsroom to studio and back – because CBS’ first broadcasts were from Grand Central Terminal. The pictures on people’s television sets used to shake when the trains came in!
I know Spanish pretty well. I’m half-Puerto Rican – my mom is from Puerto Rico – so I have a lot of family there, and my mom’s first language is Spanish. But growing up in the States, and with my dad being from the States, I’m kind of just like this white kid.
I’m Mexican-American. My dad was actually born in Mexico. He was raised up there, and he came back and forth to America pretty much his whole teenage years. My mom is from Sacramento, California, and she’s a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl. She’s a whitey.
My dad is still Christian Scientist. My mom’s not, and I’m not. But I believe in God, and that there’s a higher power and an intelligence that’s bigger than us and that we can rely on. It’s not just us, thinking we are the ones in control of everything. That idea gives me support.
My dad was a club musician. He was always playing guitar and playing loads of soul records and ‘60s rock n’ roll. Whenever he used to cook, he used to play Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin, The Kinks, and the Spencer Davis Group – a lot of really earthy things.
Before we took down the tree each year, Dad would always say a prayer that we would be together the next Christmas. I cling to that prayer, which serves as a reminder that it’s important to be grateful in the present for the people you love because, well, you never know.
In high school I dated a white woman. She would come to visit me on the rez. And her dad, who was very racist, didn’t like that at all. And he told her one time, ‘You shouldn’t go on the rez if you’re white because Indians have a lot of anger in their heart.’
I remember opening my dad’s closet and there were, like, 40 suits, every color of the rainbow, plaid and winter and summer. He had two jewelry boxes full of watches and lighters and cuff links. And just… he was that guy. He was probably unfulfilled in his life in many ways.
I was often looked at as a leper by kids at school because I was a Jehovah’s Witness. They didn’t like it – you were ‘weird’. And on Saturday mornings, you’d be knocking at their doors. I remember standing there with my mum and dad, thinking, ‘Oh my God, I know whose door this is, and I’ll have to see them on Monday.’ It was terrible.
I think there’s nothing better than laughing in life, so that’s nice, to be thought of as someone who can make someone laugh. It’s ‘cause I think life is hard. You know, my dad was a really silly man. A great Irish silly man. And that’s fine.
St. Lucia was a place were we used to go on vacation – not every year, but we went there a couple of times. I remember the last time that I went there, I was really small, and the only memory that I have is that my dad was going swimming or fishing one day – and I really, really wanted to go – but I was too young.
When I was young, we always went to our posh cousins at Christmas. My dad made sure we had new shoes and clean clothes – he was really proud – and that’s why I felt different from everyone living around me. We had the first television on the estate, the first fridge.
I look at my little girl and I wonder what she’s going to be and what she’s going to do and what is it that leads girls certain directions in life. I think a lot of that goes back to what kind of father they had, and so it makes me want to be the best dad I can possibly be.
I have three older brothers, and we all have different combinations of parents. My father was the best man at my mom’s first wedding! And my brother’s mother – my dad’s first wife – is the sister to my mom’s first husband’s second wife. So my brothers are both stepcousins and stepbrothers. It’s very ‘70s rock.
I love entertaining people, I love playing music, and I love rocking like an animal. But at a certain point, you’re playing gig after gig after gig, in town after town after town, and you’re lying down, staring at another hotel-room ceiling, and it’s like, ‘I want to be home. I’m a dad. I’ve got kids.’
Simple. Pared down. Timeless. The ties were never too thick or too thin; the pants were never too flared or too skinny. In my life with Dad, he wore Western apparel because we went riding – jeans, cowboy boots, the turquoise belt buckle. But it was all very simple, and that classic look is very ‘Ralph Lauren.’
I did not start hunting until later in life. When I was a kid growing up in Pennsylvania, my dad worked at a steel mill, and we didn’t have the means to buy guns or take off and go hunting. But I loved being outdoors. I built tree stands and ground blinds in the woods and pretended that I was hunting.
My dad came from Trinidad to Jamaica when he was 19. He had to go to Jamaica to join the British regiment, where it was based. After Sandhurst, he returned to the Caribbean as a junior lieutenant, based in Jamaica. He met my mum and became a Jamaican citizen.
My real name is Joseph Herbert. My dad is white; my mom’s Asian, Filipino. And when I started stand-up 22 years ago, I used to go up as Joseph Herbert, and I would just have to defend my name. Every time I went onstage, it was so annoying. People would heckle.
When I was a little bitty kid, I was listening to the stuff my parents were listening to. My mom was a huge Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige fan. My dad had a cover band that I sang with, and he loved Parliament, Prince, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton, the blues, James Brown.
