CeeLo Green has opened up about how much he wants to support his son’s music career.
Introducing Layke to the world at this year’s Grammys, the father-son duo caught everyone’s attention with their red and black matching outfits. CeeLo donned red contacts for the occasion, and a leather newsboy cap, while Layke (real name Kingston Johnson) wore KISS-style makeup and a red fur vest.
In a new conversation on T.I.’s Expeditiously podcast, the Goodie Mob member opened up about supporting his son’s taste in music and his quest to become a metal artist.
At one point, CeeLo revealed that he and Layke have been working on a collaborative project for some time, seemingly titled Like Father Like Gun. That prompted Tip to ask CeeLo about his and Layke’s joint creative process.
"The encouragement I had given [Layke] was taking shape," CeeLo said around the 16:30 minute mark in the video above. "Sonically, him being a producer and just listening to his tracking and a lot of the direction he was going in sonically, it made me want to rhyme. I was becoming inspired by it, as a matter of fact."
"And of course, I wanted to be his first responder and his biggest fan. And even beyond the fatherly…I'm just like this shit banging," CeeLo added. "I feel strong instinctually, and I'm like it's not the bias. I'm like, this is strong."
"That's my compliment I want to give to him. It started like that, and just to support him, hearing him out like you every so often, send me four or five things," CeeLo continued. "And then we started just bartering in a way where I would be out of town, and I might just do an impromptu session and record something for his stuff. … Just building each other's confidence, but as long as I've known him, which is his entire life, he always was heavily into rock."
"It just felt really natural to do. And we got the freedom, we got the liberty, we got the resources to just be creative and love and lean into each other," the "Crazy" artist concluded.
Back in February, Entertainment Tonight caught up with the two on the Grammys red carpet, where CeeLo said he was "born this way," regarding his contacts.
Layke was also asked about his name, which is a remix of "Lake Erie." "Honestly, it opens up just an air of mystery and makes it seem like a little bit bigger than just a human being. You’ve got to go with the flow," he said.
