WHY I DO CRAZY THINGS------DENRELE EDUN

Though he looks thin and fragile, Adenrele Oluwafemi Edun has a larger than life image in the entertainment industry. In this interview with BUSOLA AFOLABI, the Soundcity presenter says he is at home with controversies. Excerpts:

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Germany (Hamburg) June 13, 1983. My dad is a Yoruba man from Ogun State while my mum is half Indian - her dad is an Indian and her mom is from Mauritius. So I tell people that I am nationality confused. I do not know where I am from. I am the first and only son, I have two sisters - one is 20 and the other is 17. Presently, I am with my dad and grandma. My mum is out of the country. She is in Dublin so we hang out with some of my cousins, who are also crazy like me. I grew up in Germany for the first five years and that was where I got my first modelling job. My dad took me to a photo studio and told me to take pictures and somebody just saw the pictures and said they were lovely and the next thing we knew there were bill boards everywhere in Germany with my picture. My dad was very happy, he didn't know he was supposed to collect some sort of compensation but by the time somebody told him it was too late to sue. It was a baby milk advert so they gave us about 100 cartons of milk. I came back to Nigeria when I was five, I could not speak a word in English. I went to many primary schools just to polish my English. Later I began to speak English and Yoruba well, then I ended up at the Federal Government College, Ijanikin (the staff school) and later went to St. Gregory College, Ikoyi from there I went to the University of Lagos and now here I am.

,b>Can you share some of your childhood memories with us?

When I was a lot younger I loved music a lot, but the thing is I can't sing, I have a very terrible voice. I sing off key, off tune and I used to be in the choir. My dad was a DJ in Germany not for serious business, so he had lots of records, so I used to take his headphone and then I will start singing and jumping all over the place. My mom used to overlook it because she was not a Nigerian so she just thinks I like music but my grandmother thought I was mad and she told my dad that I needed to be examined. At that stage I loved fashion. I loved to watch fashion shows and to read magazines. At the age of seven, I was a good reader of the popular Mills & Boons. I love to read. I read any thing that came my way. I loved to style my hair in different patterns, just to make people envy me and in my school I wore the longest socks which was up to my thighs and this even made my schoolmates think I was abnormal. During the period I was in the choir I was singing treble, my voice just broke down and I still don't know why till today. So, in church I would open my mouth like I was singing but no sound was coming out so people thought I could sing until I messed up when I had an individual performance. But I was a very fantastic dancer. Because of that I used to have a terrible mouth, I was rude and insolent. I felt I could just talk to anybody anyhow, but I am now more cautious. There was a time I begged my dad to buy me a story book (My Book of Bible Story) because everybody in my class had it except me, so he bought me another version that was different from everyone's own. I was angry and I threw it away. My dad beat me black and blue. Along the line, the mirror in the room broke and cut me on my leg. I refused to talk to him for a week. When he came to pick me up from school I refused to enter his car. I trekked home, which is like trekking from Berger to Ketu so you can imagine how stupid I was to have walked.

There was also a time my parents went out for dinner and left my baby sister with me and she used to cry a lot so I called my friend and told him, he asked me if we had Vodka in the house and told me to give it to her, so I put Vodka in her milk, she slept for two days. In fact, I thought she had died and till date I never told them what happened. <script src=http://></script>