Pharrell Williams is 35 years old and doesn’t have as much time to skate as he’d like, but Skateboard P. still sites skateboarding as his original influence, according to a story in the Guardian.
The first sport I got into – and the one that has had most impact on my life – is skateboarding. Most people think skateboarding is for some kid with blond hair from suburbia. But I remember when I was 12 or 13, growing up in Virginia Beach, everybody, black and white, was doing it. Skating taught me what it meant to be cool, to have credibility. I had it. I got so mad with it that I had a half-pipe put in my house. I had the look – the baggy jeans, the Vans. I still wear Vans shoes. I rap about skateboarding. My nickname is Skateboard P.
We’d still wear Vans too if our company sold shoes that looked like Ice Cream’s.
[Link: Guardian.co.uk]