Mike D on telling Beastie Boys bandmate Ad-Rock he was making a solo album – and why he doesn’t feature on ‘Thank You’

Mike D has explained why his Beastie Boys bandmate Ad-Rock doesn’t feature on his new solo album ‘Thank You‘. READ MORE: No Sleep Till… North Shields: Beastie Boys’ Mike D talks going solo and keeping weird venues alive The rapper recently dropped his debut solo album on August 28, which notably did not feature his former Beastie Boys bandmate, Ad-Rock. Now, Mike D has opened up on why Ad-Rock failed to appear on the album, telling Consequence that he called him to break the news. He said that he waited until he was “really committed” to making the album until he “had to call Adam and tell him. It’s almost like I was calling [and] telling him I was in a relationship or something. I guess I was — I was in a relationship with making a record.” Mike D went on to say that Ad-Rock “couldn’t have been sweeter” about the news, adding: “He was just very supportive, and then we also joked around and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do. I’m playing some drums.’ So it was nice. I’m glad that we had that conversation.” He also told Consequence that there was never any intention to bring Ad-Rock onto the project, explaining: “I would have felt weird about it and I think he would have felt weird about it, and why go there? Let’s just be clear and be honest, it was very important to me that I make my own record.” We spoke to Mike D around the release of ‘Thank You’, where the rapper told us about the impetus for making a record post-Beastie Boys. The band split following the death of Adam “MCA” Yauch in 2012, who died from parotid cancer. “We so much loved all three of us being in a band with each other for Beastie Boys,” Mike D told NME earlier this year. “When Yauch died, it was an extremely sad time for me so making music was just not on the table. Then being a dad was something I put myself into and eventually I worked on the [Beastie Boys Book] with Adam [“Ad-Rock” Horovitz] and that really helped both of us as we were really able to shine a light on our past together. “I took a minute where I was watching my kids make music for a bit, which was an interesting thing as I was also working on producing records for other artists,” he continued to say. “That was fun and everything – and hats off to really good record producers, I’m not knocking it – but for myself I got to a place where I was feeling the most about what I was producing when bands were more executing my ideas. “I was like, ‘What the fuck am I doing? Bands shouldn’t be doing my ideas, they should be making their own ideas and I should be making my own ideas’.” We reviewed ‘Thank You’ when it dropped, giving the record a four-star review. “His true solo potential will be revealed when he goes on to push harder on his extremes, but what you have in ‘Thank You’ is a solid and joyful return to be grateful for. Welcome back,” we wrote.