The Black Eyed Peas have been nominated for six Grammy Awards this year. Their song “Boom Boom Pow” ranked No. 1 in iTunes sales for 2009. And the group is headed out on its first headlining US arena tour. But vocalist Taboo (born Jaime Gomez) said this year’s big accomplishments hit a little closer to home.

“Well, I have to say, just on a personal note, being married to my beautiful wife Jaymie and having a new baby on July 19,” Taboo said about the highlights of his adult life. “That’s something a little bit more personal to me. I have to say that that is a dream for a lot of people. For us, it’s a miracle to have such a beautiful baby. His name is Jalen. Also, my son, the oldest one, Josh, is going to graduate from high school. That’s a dream that is coming true.

“Now, on the Black Eyed Peas tip: to be on the U2 stage, that was a dream come true. Performing at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame, that was amazing. Performing at the Super Bowl, having six Grammy nominations, that’s amazing. Breaking the world record for having a No. 1 for 26 weeks, that’s amazing. There are so many things, it’s endless. I feel the dreams are just starting. Being able to do my first major film, ‘Street Fighter,’ also releasing my new shoe, Taboo X Jump–and in January it’ll be out in Bloomingdale’s–that’s a dream come true because I’ve always been a shoe connoisseur.”

Taboo, who is joined in the Black Eyed Peas by will.i.am, Fergie and apl.de.ap, spoke to LiveDaily about the forthcoming tour; the making of the band’s latest album, “The E.N.D.”; and those pesky rumors about group breaking up.

Congratulations on your Grammy nominations.

Oh, thank you so much. We’re very excited and we look forward to performing on that day.

Do you know what you’re going to perform yet?

We’re trying to keep it a little secret. It’s going to be a mash-up of things.

This is your first major headlining arena tour in the United States.

This is going to be great–to be able to have our own bells and whistles on stage. To have us performing here in our hometown at the Staples Center, it’s amazing because we’ve come such a long way from being in an underground group in ’98 and reaching such a pinnacle of success. The dreams keep on becoming realities for us. We’re grateful to have our fifth album be our biggest album to date.

What can we expect from this tour?

This tour is more of an experience than a tour. Before the actual show starts, there’s going to be a club backstage, where if you buy a certain ticket, you’re able to go to the club before the actual show, where will and apl are going to be DJing. Even before the show, you can witness will and apl DJing, and then they get on stage, DJ again, and they get off stage and there’s a bus that takes you to the after party if you get this golden ticket. That’s something that AEG and us came up with to keep the Black Eyed Peas experience.

Are you going to be reaching deep in the catalog when you come up with the set list for the tour?

The thing about it is we have so many songs in the catalog, we have to give a little something to each album. I can’t say we’re going to reach too far. I don’t think we’re going to do “Falling Up” in our set. I think a couple songs from “Elephunk,” “Monkey Business,” songs from “The E.N.D.,” songs from “The Dutchess”–I think that right there is two hours’ worth of music.

How much do you have to rehearse for a tour like this?

Well, the thing about our group is we never rehearse. That’s always been our thing. I know it sounds weird and it sounds funny for such a big tour. I know we have a couple rehearsals in Vegas, so, hopefully we’ll be able to knock it out in a month. But, prior to this, we’ve never rehearsed. We’ve never had this type of show capacity. It’s always, like, we open up for somebody. “Let’s go out there and rock out.” Our pure energy [helps us] when we open. That’s what our set’s about: it’s about energy–but it’s also about lighting; it’s also about wardrobe; it’s also about choreography. There’s a lot of things that we’re putting into this tour that we’re not used to. We’re glad to be stepping up into the world of a big arena tour. We’re going to give the Black Eyed Peas fans something they’ve never expected from the Peas.

You recently toured with U2. What was the most important thing you think you learned from them?

Appreciating how big the stage was and knowing how to utilize a big stage like that. Did you see how big that stage was? It looked like a Transformer. Knowing how to utilize the crowd, the showmanship, and their longevity as friends. U2 have been in the game for so many years and they’re still such great friends, which is very impressive.

How did you decide to tap LMFAO for the opening act on your upcoming tour?

LMFAO is signed to will.i.am’s label. They’re good friends of ours. Will.i.am, he’s really inspired by the whole club scene. LMFAO is really big pacemaker in that scene. That was the reason why we chose to have them.

When you wrote “Boom Boom Pow,” did you think that would be a top-selling song, let alone the best-selling song?

No, we just thought it was a good club song. We didn’t know it would be such a big song.

That must have been an amazing feeling to hear it was the No. 1-selling iTunes song.

It’s such a great accomplishment for such a different type of song. It’s not Black Eyed Peas-esque. When it first came out, people didn’t know it was us. People were waiting for “Where is the Love” or “My Humps” or something like that.

You experimented a little bit more with “The E.N.D.” Was that fun in the studio?

Yeah, it was, because, usually, our old records were more experimental as far as the direction–we didn’t really have a direction. [Laughs] It was more like, “Let’s do a song like ‘Where is the Love?’ ‘Let’s Get It Started,’ ‘Pump It.’” They were all totally different styles of songs. But this album was more themed, there was a direction. It was more dance-oriented, more for the club scene. Will was inspired by the electro scene on this album. I feel like we captured that. I’m not saying our style of music is electro. I’m saying it was inspired by electro and dance music.

How did you come up with the title “The E.N.D.”?

There was a lot of speculation that the Black Eyed Peas had broken up when Fergie did her own thing, when will did his own thing and me and apl did our own thing. We just ran with it. It was so funny because people were always saying we had broken up because we did solo projects. So we thought, “Why don’t we entitle the album ‘The E.N.D.’ so people will talk about it and be like, “Oh, this is the end of the Black Eyed Peas. ” No, it’s not the end of the Black Eyed Peas. It’s the end of the rumor that we had just broken up. It’s also the end of the era of music. Before, here in the US, you were able to go to Sam Goody, Virgin Megastore. Those places don’t exist anymore. It’s the end of going to a CD store and getting a tangible CD. Now, you have to go online or to Best Buy to get it. We felt like it’s the end of that era. Where there’s an end, though, there’s a beginning.

Does it also stand for “The Energy Never Dies?”

Yes. The energy is the energy of our friendship–the energy of the Black Eyed Peas as a whole, as an entity, as a unit. No matter what speculations are made of the Black Eyed Peas, the energy will never die.

Christina Fuoco-Karasinski