He's the full-on, unashamed, no-apologies Utimate Party Guy. He's a Renaissance Man who dabbles in visual art, fashion, photography, music, and whatever the hell else, to the point where he seems to never need sleep. He's a rock philosopher who's crafted his own all-encompassing doctrine of fun and joy, one that he applies to every aspect of life. He's a motivational speaker, a supremely talented multi-instrumentalist, a commentator for Fox News, a gourmand, a noise-rock/reggae producer, a nightclub-owning entrepreneur, a children's book promoter, an advice columnist, an interviewer, a Global Angels charity ambassador, an art lecturer, a performance artist, an emcee at comedy awards shows, a fastidious pen pal, a radio personality, a really, really nice, friendly guy, and -- most of all -- a totally enigmatic puzzle.

I'm talking about Andrew W.K., obviously, the guy who's single-handedly launched thousands (millions?) of badass parties at clubs, bedrooms, and frat houses across America. He's been praised, vilified, adored, dismissed, practically worshipped, heralded as a true-life musical Horatio Alger, and accused of being a colossal fraud, all in the span of less than a decade making music and spreading his do-what-feels-good philosophy around the globe. And yet, for all the exposure, the guy still feels like a mystery, at least to me -- the first time I heard "Party Hard", the question that immediately came to mind was, "holy shit...is this guy for real?" There's a fine line between fun-poking satire and honest love for Big Rock, and if he's the real thing, Andrew W.K. straddles it like nobody else, not even The Darkness. But how can anybody be all of this, do all of this, not to mention successfully, and stay sane?

Needless to say, I'm mystified by the guy -- and, okay, I'll admit it, there's a bit of a man-crush thing going on there, too. Andrew W.K. is like the cool buddy you always wished you had when you were a kid, back when things like parties with your friends, playing loud music with the windows rolled down, and breaking the rules seemed like the most epic things in the world. (Hell, maybe they actually were.) So, seeing as he's finally coming to town, I thought now'd be as good a time as any to try to make contact with the man himself. I fired off a pile of questions, not really expecting an actual response, but lo and behold, he responded.