It's common nowadays for a celebrity to come out and proclaim how much of a geek they were in high school. Is it just a trend to soften celebrity, or massive karmic retribution for the popular kids?

I think that it's par for the course for the people who are running the world now. All the computer geeks in high school - Bill Gates is such a perfect example - are now running the world. Twenty-six year old guys who started their own web-sites are now millionaires, at the time when stuff like that in high school was left of the center. Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers is such a perfect example because in high school he was into the trumpet and jazz, and that translated into incredible success for him. In a lot of ways, it is overdone. Like every hot girl now was tall and skinny and dorky in high school. That's definitely overplayed. Like, I was a professional golfer in California when all the cool guys surfed and smoked pot. It's easy for me to say, I didn't go to my prom and look, now I'm hanging with the cool MTV crowd.

You recently judged a model's special on MTV and Colin - a "Real World " star- was a judge for Ms. Teen USA. Why do you think that youre a good judge for beauty?

I can't speak for Colin, but I don't really know why. I was a judge for Fashionably Loud in Miami, but there were actually 3 judges, and I was the personality judge. I had to listen to interviews with the girls, and try to get to know them to see if they had a personality that translated well in modeling. Which relates a lot into what I do on a daily basis. I definitely wasn't judging how hot the girls were.

The truth is that I am totally, totally against the whole celebrity thing. It has never brought me any happiness - in fact, it's hindered a lot of happiness for me. It is a constant struggle to convince people that, truthfully, I am exactly like you. Two years ago I was the bartender that would have given you your Budweiser - don't treat me any differently just because my day job has changed. I'm trying to give the more down-to-earth vibe. I'll go to the mall, and I'll have 20 minutes to do Christmas shopping, and I just won't have time to be a celebrity. But people will hoard around me, and think I'm a jerk because I simply don't have time to sign autographs. I want to be like, dude, I only have 20 minutes to shop.

You recently said in Teen People, "God put me here for a reason. This - meaning TRL is where I need to be." What reason do you think youre here for?

I never asked for celebrity - I never auditioned, I never really wanted to be famous. I wanted to have a normal job, pay rent, spend time with my family. I think my role here on the show is just bringing some sense of reality to the people. I kind of think of myself as the guy who yanks the curtain from the wizard of oz to reveal a midget with a microphone. I want to let everyone know that what seems important now - who is is cool and who isn't - isn't necessarily important in the long run. In that way, I'm really just something of a conduit.

Though there is clear ethnic diversity on the countdown, the white groups still dominate. Is it possible that TRL is entrenching this system by encouraging white versions of genres - like Limp Bizkit's or Eminem's emergence as white rappers?