LOS ANGELES??I have a flight to Manila to catch,? rock ?n? roll legend Dewey Cox said to explain why he cut short an enjoyable performance with his band, The Hardwalkers, at the penthouse suite of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.

?I was told I cannot be late,? said the Lifetime Achievement awardee for his career that spanned the 1950s to the present. Apparently, Dewey was aware of what happened to his friends, The Beatles, when they reportedly refused to show up at Malacañang and meet with the First Lady, Imelda Marcos, during the Fab Four?s concert visit to the Philippines in July 1966. As a result of the ?snub,? a mob allegedly hired by the government chased The Beatles out of the Manila International Airport.

Too bad, since the media was enjoying Dewey?s first live appearance in decades because he was in rehab. Dewey, wearing a white suit and a pompadour that seemed to reach the penthouse ceiling, sang several songs, including one that he dedicated to his first wife ?who no longer speaks to me.? He told a female journalist after the mini-concert, ?I noticed you in the audience when I was up there singing. I thought you were about to rip that blouse.?

In a talk later after his live set, Dewey told us, ?I have been told that one of the former rulers (Imelda Marcos) wants to have a meeting with me. Paul McCartney, who?s a good friend of mine, told me about his experience in Manila. So I thought I better show up on time and make sure that I have my return ticket when it?s time to leave.?

At this point, we?d like to clarify that this was actually John C. Reilly, singing, acting and talking to reporters in character as Dewey Cox, his persona in the comedy, ?Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.? The film, produced by Judd Apatow, who either produced, co-wrote or directed such hit comedies as ?The 40-Year-Old Virgin,? ?Superbad,? ?Knocked Up? and ?Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky and Bobby,? makes fun of the musical biopic genre represented by such award-winning movies as ?Ray? and ?Walk the Line.?

The film?s production notes sum up how the comedy parodies the conventions of the Hollywood biopic: ?On his rock ?n? roll spiral, Cox sleeps with 411 women, marries three times, has 22 kids and 14 stepkids, stars in his own ?70s TV variety show, collects friends ranging from Elvis to the Beatles to a chimp, and gets addicted to?and then kicks?every drug known to man ? But despite it all, Cox grows into a national icon and eventually earns the love of a good woman?longtime backup singer Darlene (Jenna Fischer).?

Here are excerpts of our press con with Dewey, who spoke in a twang a la Elvis Presley?s:

I was glad to hear that you?re flying to Manila right after this.
Yeah.

What songs will you perform?
I don?t know what I?m going to sing yet. I?m working on a Filipino version of ?Walk Hard.? I tell you what. It?s tough to get those Tagalog syllables down. I?m working on them phonetically so I hope the Filipinos will enjoy the song. That?s the most important thing.

Are you excited to meet Imelda Marcos?
Yes. I understand she loves shoes. That?s something we have in common.

Speaking of Cox, there?s a lot of naked people in the film. In one orgy scene, a penis was very close to your face.
I don?t know why they picked that incident from my life?of all the things they could have focused on. I talked to Mr. Judd Apatow about that and he said, ?That?s funny, you know.? I said, ?If it happened to you, it wouldn?t be funny, especially when you?re surrounded by naked men all the time and you?re on the road. You?re traveling on buses and you crave female company but on the bus, it?s sausage fest most of the time.? Pardon my French.

Your singing voice sounds like Roy Orbison?s.
Roy borrowed a lot from me. It?s true. Bless his soul, by the way. I?m not imitating anybody. You might ask Roy if he?s imitating Dewey Cox.

Have you seen the film on Bob Dylan?
No, but I heard of that film on Bobby Dylan, as I call him. Apparently, it took six people, including a woman, to play that guy. I don?t spend a lot of time imagining as a woman.

Why do you think Judd Apatow has been very successful with his comedies?
He was pretty nuts with what he did in ?Knocked Up.? I never thought I?d see a vagina in a comedy.

What have you been doing since you retired?
I want to send a special word out. If you haven?t tried my sausage, it?s a fantastic breakfast sausage. We make it at Cox farms. If you get a chance, bite into a juicy Cox sausage for breakfast.

What can you tell us about your friends, the Beatles? Your trip with them to India is depicted in a scene in the film.
They argued a lot and they dragged me over there. They?re the ones who said, ?Come on, you?ll find the secret to life.? All I found was the secret to diarrhea. The food did not agree with me at all. I found it difficult to leave the commode tent in the camp.

Who?s your favorite Beatle?
My favorite Beatle is the little funny one with the mustache. He always seemed to be up for a good time. The other ones take themselves pretty seriously.

Did you hear that Paul McCartney is dating Rosanna Arquette?
Well, good for him. She caught herself a Beatle.

Did you have to approve John C. Reilly to play you in the film about your life?
He didn?t audition for me. I heard he loves Cox. That?s the most important thing.

Knives and cutting played a painful part in your early life. Are you able to use kitchen knives and not be haunted by memories?
I haven?t touched kitchen utensils in 20 years. That?s something I have other people do for me. I haven?t touched toilet paper in 15 years. Once you make a certain amount of money, you let other people take care of the little stuff.

What happened to all the animals that you collected as you became popular?
We cut the giraffe loose. We said we can?t feed this thing anymore. My first wife Edith didn?t want the giraffe so it is wandering somewhere around Memphis. I hope it found a good home and something to eat. As for the monkey, we had a falling out. In the divorce hearing, he took the side of Edith. That was his choice. He was my soul mate and someone I really trusted and believed in.

Among the hundreds of women you slept with, who was the best?
I have to say Darlene because she knew me the best. She met me before I became a worldwide sensation. She could understand me in a way that was more intimate than the thousands of others who were there just for the pleasure. And for a piece of Cox, let?s face it.

E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.