Maxim: We're fully aware of the mentalness that can occur when on the road, so do you have any stories you'd like to share with us? Or are you well behaved nowadays?
PG: I'm more well behaved this time around!
Maxim: Oh? As opposed to?
PG: As opposed to doing what any young person would do in that situation, being exposed to what I was exposed to. If you look at any of the old footage from when I was on Mike Skinner's label there was a lot of debauched behaviour. Mike feeding me pills during the encore in Glasgow, for example. There's a series of pictures of him looking increasingly pleased with himself and me looking more and more freaked out.
Maxim: Well, it looks as if you eat more balanced meals these days. [Pro Green is chowing down on lots of fruit.]
PG: I'm much more into the balance now. I really need to concentrate on my energy and being able to keep going.
Maxim: To our knowledge, since leaving us at the King & Queen after your first meeting with us, you haven't really stopped have you?
PG: Yep. I think I've had two days off? After leaving here, we've got 11 gigs in eight days as well. Two gigs a night some nights is great fun!
Maxim: You've got a fair amount of songs in your back catalogue from previous deals and signings and the like. Will there be an opportunity for people to pick that up?
PG: Yeah, definitely. We're working on it now actually...
Maxim: Hard copies or something else?
PG: Oooh, I dunno about hard copies! It's a maybe though. We'll probably do a repress of the first mixtape, and I'm also gonna give away a package of stuff online just for the fans... a few tracks from each project. Some of the remixes and stuff I've done. I'm also working on another mixtape now... mastering the album today and then next week I'll be straight back into the studio hopefully to finish up on the mixtape.
Maxim: Are you starting to get a bit freaked out by how many people are following you on Facebook? [At time of writing, 206,856 followers!]
PG: Yeah, it's a bit crazy. A lot of them have come on board recently, but it goes up constantly. Walking down the street freaks me out a bit, people recognise me cos the tattoos are a dead giveaway. My favourite thing to do is when people ask me "Are you Professor Green?", I just ask them the same question back! Some people think it's funny, others just look at me with a face that says 'You c*nt'.
Maxim: You could always wear a scarf? Although that might make you stand out more in Summer time.
..
PG: Ibiza on the beach... with a scarf. Sweating out my neck. I'd end up looking like one those women with all the rings on their necks!
Maxim: Anyone you're yet to meet but would like to? We touched briefly on your influences last time we chatted. Chalked any of those ones up yet?
PG: I'd love to meet Jessica Alba. For purely selfish reasons.
Maxim: Meat with an 'a'?
PG: Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah, exactly that! I said that in Before I Die. I would love to meat Jessica. Is that the type of thing you were talking about?
Maxim: Not necessarily!
PG: Well, for the record I wouldn't wanna “meat” Jay-Z in that sense!
Maxim: He might have a slight problem with that.
PG: Wrong. Really, really wrong.
Maxim: Moving swiftly on. The list from Before I Die, how is that coming along?
PG: Well, I've definitely felt fake boobs. They don't feel real at all. I don't like them, they're a bit of a joke really. If it's done because of a masectomy or something then I understand, but otherwise I don't get it. They just look shit.
Maxim: Well, before we upset any silicone enhanced women (or men), anything else from the list?
PG: I haven't had a number one yet, technically I haven't had my teeth straightened... they were removed and replaced with implants. But I'm getting there! All in all, I've done one thing on the list, but I've got all the time in the world and I'm enjoying myself right now.
Maxim: Let's dish some dirt. Have you ever met anyone that you just instantly thought 'You cock!'.
PG: I've been quite fortunate. Nobodys really fucked me off so far. Paloma Faith pissed me off a little bit though. She's meant to be really nice, she worked with a really good friend of mine, Cores, executive producer of my album. He produced the title track for 4, 3, 2, 1 and said she was lovely. I introduced myself to her at the Prince of Persia premiere and she spoke to me without looking at me and still walking away. I just thought it was really rude. I always have time for people and if I don't I make sure that I'm nice about it. First impressions count. To be honest she was probably just having a bad day, we all have them. Nobody's really left a lasting impression on me in that sense. There's still time though!
Maxim: As much as you love us, we know you're seeing other people for your interviews. We understand. Anything else interesting you've been up to on that tip?
PG: I did an interview the other day for some personal trainers and they taught me to play golf at a driving range. I wasn't great. I said the clubs were too short...
Maxim: Excuses excuses.
PG: Nah, I started to get some good height and distance on it but the accuracy wasn't my strong point. Anyway, they asked me who I'd have as my caddy, I chose Mike Skinner. Make him carry my bags around all day. They also asked me if I could put my club round anyone's head, who would it be. Without any hesitation I said 'Kerry Katona'. Not that I'd ever hit a woman, but hypothetically. Any woman that smokes, drinks and takes drugs while they're pregnant... it's not on. Your baby doesn't need to be on that.
Maxim: Without wanting to ruin her PR any further, let’s talk about movies. Any favourites? You don't have much time to watch them these days eh?
PG: Not really no! I'm not very good at watching films more than once, really really bad for it. I've got a really good memory so I just don't need to half the time, but Batman: The Dark Knight was mental. I've probably seen that seven or eight times. Other than that, there's a film called The Game (with Michael Douglas) that I really like. Incidentally that was also the first DVD I ever bought back when they were 25 quid. I like a film with good twists. There's not many about! I didn't think too much of Shutter Island, and if I hadn't of been invited I probably wouldn't have gone to see Prince of Persia. But it was alright. Made me feel like a kid again.
Maxim: Speaking of which, didn't somebody nick your tickets to the premiere?
PG: They did! Somebody stole my tickets to the Prince of Persia premiere! They got biked to my manager's office, but it was some stupid o'clock in the morning so nobody was there. There is a call centre in the same building though, so we reckon it had something to do with somebody who works there. It wasn't too much of a biggie, we were given duplicate tickets which had our seat numbers written on them as opposed to printed. We got to our seats and there were people in them, so we went back out to speak to the cinema guy who figured it was just a misunderstanding. Clearly he wasn't getting what was going on, so we went to speak to the woman from Disney instead, who went straight to the people in our seats and asked where they got the tickets from. Three of the four people all looked at the girl on the end who said she'd got them through work, then the Disney woman went "Well you didn't, because these are celebrity tickets, so GET THE FUCK OUT THE CINEMA!". They walked out with their heads hung very low.
Maxim: That is kinda stupid. Stealing tickets to a highly publicised movie premiere is one thing, but to actually go?
PG: I'd say it's also pretty brave. But far more stupid.
Maxim: Being as you're named Professor Green, do you have any pot heroes?
PG: Howard Marx for sure. More like a pot legend. Probably, in a funny way, George Michael. He's just someone you wouldn't have expected. Apparently Paulo Nutini likes a good smoke as well. Ian Brown as well.
Maxim: Funniest pot story?
PG: Probably when we were really young, we were all at my mate Joe's house. There was this boy called Troy and he smoked weed and went absoloutely loony, phoned himself an ambulance and everything. They came out but they didn't take him to hospital. Another funny time from when we were younger, climbing up a tree in Springfield Park and just chilling. Thought it'd be a good idea to smoke a spliff, then another, and another, and another. That was when we realised we'd have to get down. It was like watching Lemmings, none of us could climb properly so we all ended up just hang dropping. I did my ankle in and everything.
Maxim: Do you have anyone in your team that is there just to roll your spliffs?
PG: Nah, but I have been thinking about getting a drug carrier, because it would be terrible if I couldn't get into the states. But then I'd feel bad putting that responsibility on someone. Maybe there are professional drug carriers out there somewhere, but I bet they'd be really expensive. Besides which, I'm really fussy about how my spliffs are rolled. I am a spliff Nazi.
Maxim: What kind of equipment do you have on the tour bus?
PG: We don't have a tour bus, we have a Vauxhall Astra. Not particularly comfortable for long journeys. We went to Middlesbrough, four and a half hours there, played the gig, four and a half hours back. In the space of 10 hours we'd spent nine in the car. Last week was Basildon, then to mine, then to Bangor in North Wales, then to Dartford in the same night. We just live in the Astra. We have an iPhone charger, a jack to jack so we can play our tunes through the radio, and a camera so we can make tour diaries but none of us know how to use it.
Maxim: A bus will be in the not too distant future then?
PG: Well we've got the tour coming up in October, but it really depends on what's going on around me. We've near enough got the whole band now, so there's talk of them going on the bus and me getting my own car. I'm just really looking forward to performing with the band.
Maxim: Are you still enjoying updating your Facebook and Twitter?
PG: Yeah, even if it's just to watch the carnage unfold.
Maxim: You said something a while back that pretty much summed it all up.
PG: About how I must be doing something right 'cos of all the hate I'm getting? Yeah it's weird. I didn't get that much off the first single, just a few angry INXS fans... but this one's moving so much quicker. Lily has quite a lot of male fans and I don't think they really appreciate seeing me anywhere near her. However, I'm also getting a lot of love, and the love far outweights the hate. As long the ratio remains that way, it's all good. Not that the hate really matters anyway. I've always been of the opinion that if you don't know me personally, I don't really care what you say, because it's not even gonna matter.
Maxim: Thus is the life of a keyboard cowboy.
PG: Ah, I like that. Keyboard cowboys. I dunno what they think they're going to achieve. It doesn't really bother me so I just hope it makes them feel better. What they don't realise is how it makes themselves look. They're passing quite harsh judgement on someone they've never even met, so what kind of an arsehole does that? "Oh look at him, he really thinks he's something"... well actually I don't, but clearly you do.
Maxim: Any rumours that you wanna put to rest?
PG: I didn't go to college in Croydon. I don't know where or how it started but it's definitely the strangest rumour I've ever heard about myself. I would've thought someone would start a bigger or better rumour than that, but there ya go.
Maxim: How about it isn't really you who updates your Facebook and Twitter?
PG: I don't get the big deal with that... do people really think someones gonna be sitting there at 3am and update my frigging page for me? It's all on my iPhone... I just get drunk and chat shit. I think once people understand my sense of humour they'll realise more over time, but if they don't believe me I'm not gonna try and prove it to them. Honestly though, it is me, I am that sad, and I probably do it too often.
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The following images were taken at the Maxim local, the King & Queen pub on Foley Street in London.
They were taken by Lee Vincent Grubb and are available from www.leevincentgrubb.co.uk
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