FREE TICKETS: Mickey Avalon

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LIVE: Mickey Avalon

• With: Dirt Nasty and Beardo
• When: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5
• Where: Cine El Rey, 311 S. 17th Street, McAllen
• Tickets: At the door, at Melhart's Music in McAllen, all Wireless Toyz locations and online at www.ez-tixx.com. Special VIP passes available at Nowhere, the boutique located on North 10th Street.

Mickey Avalon, the Los Angeles rapper who rose to fame with autobiographical lyrics about life and drugs in Hollywood, has fallen on happier times.

And he celebrated it with some relaxation at Disneyland.

That's right. Mickey Avalon went to Disneyland.

The same Mickey Avalon who talks publicly about beating a heroin habit. The same Mickey Avalon who dedicated an entire song to the size, strength and accomplishments of his, ahem, favorite male body part. The same Mickey Avalon who painted a picture of desperate street life in his 2005 debut album. The same Mickey...well, you get the point.

Avalon hides nothing, fueling his music with his checkered past.

But it seems, and Avalon will agree, that life has improved.

He has finished a sophomore album, which he expects to drop early next year, barring complications with his record label. He has planned a nationwide tour, running through McAllen's Cine El Rey Wednesday. He has even gained national fame, rapping on a Boost Mobile commercial with Jermaine Dupri and Young Jeezy. He was that white guy at the end.

But what does happiness mean for his work? Is this the end of the Mickey Avalon we know and love?

Avalon answered these questions for the most recent Festiva interview. Fighting off a bad case of mid-day hiccups, Avalon called as he walked from Disney's California Adventure Park to Disneyland, a last bit of relaxation before he hits the road.

"There's always some sort of problems in life," Avalon said. "Obviously, I'm not writing about the same things I did 10 years ago."

Speakers pipe Disney music in the background as he speaks.

"If I magically find happiness and I'm not inspired anymore, so be it," he said. "The quest is always there. Art is just something you turn to. It's like this, now I have a bigger budget to film the movie, but it's still the same characters. Same story and all that stuff."

Not wanting to interfere with Space Mountain, we kept it brief. But we asked Avalon about his new album, his new found happiness and the namesake of his biggest song -- Jane Fonda.

• WHO ARE MICKEY AVALON'S OPENING ACTS?

What should we expect from a Mickey Avalon live show?

Whether you like me or not, come to the party, because 75, 80 or 90 percent of the people there are girls, pretty girls. We're going to make sure the girls are old enough. They can't really get on the bus without valid ID.

Critics and the media call your music glam rap, what do you think about that?

The fact that people care enough to give it a name is cool. I'm also like the only one in the group, so it's not like they put me in a group with a bunch of people I don't know and don't like what they're doing. I just rap. Sometimes on stage I wear make up or glitter, so they called it glam rap. But I'm the only one in the group and I'm on top of the group. So I'm not too perturbed about it or anything.

Have you ever met Jane Fonda and do you know what she thinks of the song?

I haven't met her. I do know that she's ok with it. On CNN, Larry King interviewed her and they had Lindsay Lohan dancing to "Jane Fonda" at a club in New York. So I think she likes it. It was just something funny, because our moms did the Jane Fonda work out routine. Some people said it was because Jane Fonda did political stuff that I didn't agree with. I don't know what Jane Fonda did in Vietnam nor did I care. It was because of the aerobics.

Tell me about the new record?

The record probably is done. There's just politics with the record label. That's not what the fans want to hear about, but it's really annoying and frustrating because I'm ready to put the record out. That's even why we're doing this tour. The label won't pay for the tour because there's nothing to promote, but I wanted to get out there and get out to all my fans. We've been playing new songs at the shows, three to five new songs at the shows. The record should be out in the first quarter of '09.

How has life changed since you dropped the album and showed up in the Boost Mobile commercial?

My life has definitely gotten better. My daughter, she's in a private school. Not like super fancy, but she's in private school. I got rent paid for. My family is doing good. More small stuff. I still don't own a house or anything like that. I can't say I can retire, but I definitely have my first needs taken care of. If I did buy a house after the next record, that definitely would be a lot more accomplished. That's the one thing I could say. If I don't have a crib I can't say ‘I'm done, I quit.' Once I got a crib I could say everything could end tomorrow. I got a house. I got my daughter in school. I can't say life has changed that much. It's just gotten easier. I don't need to pay attention when the first and 15th come because rent's paid.

So you're free to go hang out at Disneyland?

Exactly, me and my mom were supposed to go to Mexico for 10 days at a spa before the tour just to get healthy and strong and stuff. My daughter ended up having that week off of school and we didn't know that so we came to California to spend time with my twin brothers. They're not my twins, they're my brothers from my father and his second wife. They're my daughter's uncles. They came early so we went with them. The difference now is, I've always tried to do whatever I want to do no matter what the consequences are. Now I get to do what I want to do and have it be without consequences.

Zack Quaintance covers features and entertainment for Festiva. You can reach him at (956) 683-4447.