Your bag is empty.
G-Eazy’s years of hustling mixtapes on street corners have blurred into extensive tours of the world’s arenas, but the 28-year-old Bay Area rapper and music-business grad hasn’t forgotten where he comes from. Shell out for a meet-and-greet ticket, and you’ll pregame in a decked-out Airstream trailer and be coiffed with G-Eazy’s cut, courtesy of his best friend and personal barber. It puts the standard selfie-and-hug VIP package to shame—and why wouldn’t you want to take after the guy?
Last December’s The Beautiful & Damned, his third major-label studio album, has already gone gold. It includes “Him & I,” a duet with his girlfriend, Halsey, that hit number one on the Billboard pop chart. To borrow the title of his first album: Must be nice.
With the repetition and constant traveling of being on tour, how do you stay sane?
I don’t think I am. [laughs] I lost that a long time ago. To stay grounded, the most important thing is calling home, whether that’s family or friends you grew up with. It’s important not to lose touch with that.
What’s a tour story you’ll tell your pals in the retirement home one day?
It’s always funny when girls throw their panties and bras on stage; they’ll write their phone numbers inside. Some of the wildest stories come from talking to fans who’ve been to 40 or 50 shows. That’s some Grateful Dead shit. It’s inspiring that anybody cares that much to come back year after year.
Anything crazy in your contract rider?
I love sour candy—not the kind you get at the gas station; you gotta find red or green sour belts at a candy store. I drink a lot of coffee to get through the day. Having brand-new socks and boxers every day so you can just throw them away and never do laundry is pretty much the coolest thing ever.
Recently you tweeted that “life is hella good.” What has made it so?
It’s important to take a step back to acknowledge and appreciate all the good things going on. I’m in my 20s. I’m healthy. This is my third album on a major label, and they’ve all had platinum singles. And I have a really amazing girlfriend who I have the number one song on the radio with.
Speaking of your girlfriend, what’s the sexiest quality a woman can have?
Confidence. Knowledge of self. Halsey’s got a really strong identity. And she’s got a really, really big energy and personality. It’s not necessarily being the loudest person in the room or the one who talks the most, but her presence is really beautiful and powerful and sexy.
What does it feel like to achieve that sort of milestone with somebody you’re in a relationship with?
It’s crazy. Doing SNL was fucking crazy. When you do a song with somebody, you kind of attach to them for the lifetime of that song. Imagine you do a song with somebody you hate—you’re going to have to travel with them to perform it, just eternally connected. So to get to share that with the person I’m sleeping with is really dope.
The tabloids are always running stories about celebrities who break up “due to their schedules.” Is that a real thing or an excuse?
That’s actually a real thing. We both have exhausting schedules. And you employ a lot of people, so it’s not just you and your job at the end of the day. At the end of my last run I’d played, like, 250 shows, not to mention video shoots and interviews and red carpet—the traveling alone is a lot. So it’s important to make the effort to carve out time for your personal life.
What is your greatest temptation or your biggest vice?
Uhhhh—sex, drugs and alcohol. And sour candy.
G-Eazy embarks on his Endless Summer tour this July.