Hip-hop group Insane Clown Posse were awestruck when Jack White reached out for a collaboration, because they had no idea why the rocker would want to be associated with one of the "most non-respected musicians today".
The former White Stripes star has produced the horror-rappers' new single Lick My A**, which will be released on White's Third Man Records.
But rapper Violent J admits the song wasn't even their idea.
He tells MTV News, "(White) called us out of the blue and asked if we'd be down to come down to Nashville, to his studio, to do some work. He's one of the most respected musicians today, and we're one of the most non-respected musicians today, and I think he knew it would drop a lot of jaws and shock people."
It took some convincing for White to get the Posse onboard the project, which makes use of a little-known Mozart tune, explicitly titled Lech Mich Im Arsch, which translates in English to 'lick me in the a**s'.
The rapper says, "(I thought), 'Nah, man, I'm not into Mozart. We don't know nothing about that s**t.' And when we went into the studio, and he told us about the 'lick my a**' thing, we were like, 'OK, we get it.' A song called Lick My A**, put Icp on it. We like to think there's a little more method to our madness. But once he told us that Mozart had a fun side to him, and liked to f**k around with his friends and make funny songs and s**t like that, we all jelled."
And Violent J admits the duo will be forever grateful to White for taking a chance on them, even if others won't be as accepting of their music: "He was really cool and, of course, we were really geeked. We were like, 'Hell yeah, we'll do a song with Jack White. That's awesome.' And we were hella (sic) thankful, but at the same time, we knew he was going to catch a lot of s**t for it."