Will.i.am didn't want to get inside the box.
The 35-year-old mastermind of the Black Eyed Peas was at a late-night rehearsal last week for the American Music Awards, where the group was to perform its new single, "The Time (Dirty Bit)." During the song's chorus, Will.i.am and his band mate Fergie were supposed to enter a pair of glass-walled elevators, but an important call had reached his cellphone, and you know what reception is like in an elevator.
At the same time, Fergie was experiencing some trouble with an especially sticky door, raising the troubling possibility that come showtime the singer might find herself locked inside her elevator, staring out helplessly at a live Nokia Theatre crowd studded with stars and a television audience numbering well into the millions.
