Thanks to Gemineye from the official No Doubt forum for transcribing an excerpt from Black Eyed Peas member Taboo’s recent autobiography, ”Fallin’ Up”,in which he shares his memories of BEP touring with No Doubt during the Return of Saturn tour in 2000. It’s sweet how he praises Gwen for being so down-to-earth and having a beautiful soul. He also recalls Tony hilariously trying to rap in the group’s ”freestyle room”-the Black Eyed Peas grew to love it so much,they still use the rap today as their preshow anthem,that is pretty cool! Taboo also recalls No Doubt’s legendary after-parties,and Adrian’s penchance for nudity,lol!
****** “One of the best tour experiences of that time was when we opened up for interscope labelmates Gwen Stefani and No Doubt that summer . Gwen was a live-wire of a tom-boy, all wide-eyed smiles, finely toned muscles and pink hued hair. the moment we first walked in to the dressing room she embraced us, smashing high fives all around. I dont think there are many more down-to-earth artists out there, and she was cool to kick it with, that woman has a beautiful soul.
We always set up a “freestyle room” wherever we went, Gwen loved it cuz of the energy. Standing in a circle, each person taking their turn spittig a verse while Apl.de.ap has his drum machine on loop. The sessions built and built until one time it was Tony Kanal’s turn to step up to the mic, “no, no, no’ tony said ” I don’t rap!” but after being goaded by Gwen , he stepped into the middle and began hesitatantly “All right, check it.. check it” the room started to laugh and he fumbled and grasped onto anything that would ryhme” .. I appreciate .. all my friends around.. white , black and brown..” everyone collapsed laughing and Tony, who couldnt rap for his life died on his feet. From then on each time we saw him backstage we said ” hey tony! I appreciate all friends around.. white black and brown” But here’s the thing , we repeated that joke so much that we ended up liking its simplicity and it was adopted as our preshow anthem. to this day in honor of Tony Kanal and our one-tribe mentality , we stand with our band, group in a huddle in the wings backstage “okay are we ready?! 1, 2, 3!” and we say as one “I appreciate all my friends around, white black and brown” high fiving Gwen Stefani style. I am not sure Tony knows the legacy he left us but thats how memorable the tour was.
The no doubt after-parties were legendary for single men, there were always lavishly themed rooms and we to send our guitar player George out into the crowd to scout for the hottest chicks, the end result was the sight of an advancing, glamorous army of fifty different “options”. They always did a good job hunting until one time Tony raised an objection and shouted out “who brought all these girls backstage?” George thinking he was about to be praised raised his hand. “dude!” shouted Tony, “when you go out there and do it again can you make sure the girls arent underage?!”****
Taboo also talked about adrian and how he is the exhibitionist walking around naked and in thongs and would whip off his clothes at the parties and say “lets get this party started!’ but we all pretty much knew that one!
Here’s a video of the Black Eyed Peas performing ”Spiderwebs” with No Doubt and fellow opening act Lit on the Return of Saturn tour: