When asked by RollingStone.com in May how many children he and his wife planned to have, Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim) said, "Oh, I don't know -- 2.3, is that the average?"
On Dec. 15, Cook got closer to that total when he and his wife, BBC chat show host Zoe Ball, had a baby boy. Ball gave birth at London's Portland Hospital; she had been due on Christmas Day. The couple named their son Woody. Ball's agent announced the birth saying, "Everyone is well, excited and happy. They are thrilled and delighted at their first joint production. Norman is over the moon and so are the rest of the family."
In a November Q&A, Cook expressed his excitement at the prospects of fatherhood. "I'm a more thoughtful bloke nowadays," he said. "The person who made the last album was a bit lost and just wandering around the world and partying for the sake of it . . . At the end of the tour, I just wanted to stay in Australia. I didn't want to go home because I had nothing to go back to. But now I have a lovely house, a lovely wife, a kid on the way, a lot more stable home life. That kind of helps."
CHRISTINA SARACENO
(December 19, 2000)