Extreme Sports' Unlikely Stars

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WHO: Peter Hayes

DAY JOB: Member of Seventies throwback rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

EXTREME PASSION: Motorcycles

BIKER BOY: Growing up in New York Mills, New York, Hayes readily immersed himself in dirt bike culture. "I flipped a little three-wheeler a couple times before they were made illegal," recalls Hayes. "I actually got knocked out on them once. I was racing my brother and I went into a ditch. The next thing I knew, I was flat on the ground. Out cold. He didn't even notice!"

GEAR: Like the vintage rock vibe of his band's songs, Hayes prefers classic rides over modern-day crotch rockets. "I'm not so into street bikes," he says, adding that he rides a 1980 Harley Sportster Ironhead. "There's something that ain't quite right getting the brand-new bike that you know isn't going to fall apart. It's about not having a back-up plan and seeing what the adventure will be."

WORST INJURY: A day before his band was scheduled to play a gig in Portugal, Hayes and his bandmates were cruising the countryside on hogs. When things got competitive and they started racing, Hayes lost control and hit the dirt. "I fell and hurt my wrist," he says. "It fucked up our show the next day. I couldn't play."

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD: The reference to bikes in the band name isn't a coincidence. "Because of our name, we dodged every motorcycle question," says Hayes. "I mean, at every photo shoot, they tried to put us on bikes! Now we embrace it more. Plus, we dig that Easy Rider imagery and all the freedom it conjures up."

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WHO: Perry Farrell

DAY JOB: Satellite Party frontman, alternative evangelist, Lollapalooza mastermind

EXTREME PASSION: Surfing

CALIFORNIA DREAMING: Before he founded the legendary psych-punk group Jane's Addiction, Farrell was obsessed with catching waves. "It changed my life," he says. "I came out to California to surf the waves. Jane's Addiction would've never happened if I hadn't started surfing."

THE GEAR: Farrell owns a veritable arsenal of fifteen boards, from Russkies to Stewarts to Cowas. His most prized stick, however, is a one-of-a-kind Becker handmade balsa board. "I've only broken it out a few times in my life," he says. "Mostly it just hangs in my living room."

WORST INJURY: While surfing with a crew of pros in Indonesia in 1997, Farrell needed to prove his mettle by paddling out further than the others. Consequently, he was nailed by a ten-foot wall of water. "The wave dragged me over the reef, ripping the flesh on my leg all the way down to the knee," he remembers. "The only thing I could do was pour apple-cider vinegar on it."

SEX MACHINE: Mr. Zog's Sex Wax, used on a board to provide traction, gets Farrell in the mood for more than just catching waves. "I would take this over any Calvin Klein or Hugo Boss aroma," he says. "It's the greatest aphrodisiac you could put in front of my nose."

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WHO: Chris Cornell

DAY JOB: Ex-frontman of Audioslave, grunge dinosaur, restaurateur

EXTREME PASSION: Wakeboarding

BORED BOARDER: Cornell discovered his interest in wakeboarding out of sheer boredom. "I got a boat when I bought property on the Puget Sound," he says. "I got tired of just cruising around, so I got one of the early wakeboard prototypes." His passion led him to try out other extreme sports from snowboarding to motorcycling. "When summer ended and I couldn't wakeboard anymore, I was like, 'What do we do now?,'" he says. "So we went snowboarding. After one day, I couldn't get enough of it. That season, I went thirty times."

WORST INJURY: While catching air from a boat's waves in 1996, Cornell landed awkwardly, causing him to see stars. "My front foot came out as I hit the water and the board whipped around and hit me on the head," he says. "It cut through my skull. I thought I severed a nerve and did permanent damage to my brain. But I was just spaced out for a while."

BONUS BOD: While Cornell hates exercise - "There's nothing more boring than a gym," he says - he doesn't mind working out on a wakeboard. "You're just having a blast and the cherry on the cake is that it's good for you," he says. "When I'm in wakeboard shape, I don't get tired at all."

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WHO: Dexter Holland

DAY JOB: Frontman for Offspring, founder Nitro Records, lifelong So-Cal punk

EXTREME PASSION: Flying military jet fighters

TAKING FLIGHT: You've heard the one about how Holland dropped out of college while pursuing a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology so he could start the Offspring. But not many people know he now passes the time these days as a licensed jet pilot. Meaning: He's permitted to fly in clouds and interact with air-traffic controllers. "I can fly a United 747 if I want to," he says. "I can fly any jet!"

GEAR: Holland flies an Aero Vodochody L-39 jet fighter, which was formerly used by the Russian Air Force. "It looks really badass and it'll never break down," he brags. "In Russia, if you were an aeronautical engineer and something didn't work on your plane, they killed you. So these planes are very reliable."

WORST INJURY: Even though flying requires no physical exertion, Holland has experienced some pain. "You experience up to five Gs of centrifugal force, which puts stress on the body," he explains. "All the blood rushes from your brain to your feet. I've seen spots before."

PRESS EJECT: The coolest feature on Holland's jet is also the most dangerous: an ejection seat. But does Holland have the balls to ever press it? Not really: He chose not to arm his. Says Holland, "I figure I'll go down with the ship."

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WHO: Lupe Fiasco

DAY JOB: Rapper, Muslim, spokesman for Chicago

EXTREME PASSION: Skateboarding

DIFFERENT STROKES: Before he could spit rhymes, Fiasco was kicking and pushing (reference to his 2006 hit song) on a skateboard as early as age five. "Pretty soon, I was using my board to ride up walls," he recalls of growing up in Chicago. "It was fun to be different."

GEAR: Fiasco has a venerable arsenal of boards - "I got a bunch of Maharishi boards I'm going to go out and destroy," he says - but his favorite is a no-name deck outfitted with Indy trucks, 54 millimeter Autobahn wheels and ball bearings shipped over from Switzerland.

AIRBORNE: Lupe's favorite locations to shred aren't in skate parks or on the streets. He prefers the smooth, carpet-free floors of an airport terminal. "I've skated in Heathrow, LAX, JFK and O?Hare," he boasts. "People can't believe you?re doing it!"

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WHO: James Murphy

DAY JOB: LCD Soundsystem mastermind, Crown prince of Brooklyn cool, DFA label exec

EXTREME PASSION: Martial arts

DROPKICK MURPHY: When Murphy finished high school in 1988, he didn't want to go to college. So to bide his time, he got into the Korean stand-up art of tang soo do and kickboxing. Eventually, he got into the bastardized martial art of Ultimate Fighting. "I hated it at first," he admits. "It just looked like bar fighting. But I got back into it because I was getting sick all the time and needed to get in shape for touring. The only thing I knew how to do was fight."

WORST INJURY: "Three of my vertebrae at the top of my spine moved about half an inch," he says. "I couldn't move my head for three weeks."

FIGHT CLUB: In 2006, Murphy and members of his own group, the punk-funk outfit !!! and disco rockers The Rapture formed their own underground fight club "DFA Fight School," named after Murphy's record label. "Our motto was ALL SCRAWN, NO BRAWN," he says. "It was a hot nebbish fighting club."

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WHO: Tim Commerford

DAY JOB: Bass player for Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave

EXTREME PASSION: Mountain biking

STEEL WHEELS: Before hooking up with Rage Against the Machine leader Zack de la Rocha, Commerford and the dreadlocked frontman used to bond over skateboarding. "Since elementary school, skateboarding was always my Thing - that's how me and Zach got to know each other." But it wasn't until he was fully committed to rocking in Rage that he started mountain biking. "When I joined Rage, I needed another outlet," says Commerford. "My father-in-law introduced me to it. He's a former Mr. USA - a huge, gnarly, muscley guy ? and when I first met him he had a mountain bike up on a stand in his garage. I was like, 'Does he have a weird bike fetish?'"

HIGH TECH: Forget the physical thrills of biking. The scientific aspect of the sport is what interests Commerford. "Biking is very high tech," he enthuses. "Bike technology actually trickled down from the aerospace industry. That aspect really drew me in - exotic metals like super-light titanium, anodized aluminum parts, how everything fits together perfectly. To me, a good bike is beautiful like a watch, or a gun."

GEAR: Commerford hops on his Intense Uzzi VPX whenever he wants to go for a spin. "I've bought so many of their bikes over the years," he says. "My bike is flickable - you can hit jumps on it and climb on it."

WORST INJURY: In 1997, while biking home from practice with RATM, Commerford crushed his skull while attempting to land a jump he'd nailed a few times before. "Next thing I knew, I was waking up in the emergency room after surgery," he says. "They put metal plates in my head. I looked like the Elephant Man, my head was so swollen. After that, I decided I'm going to really learn how to ride. I went back to that jump and did it a thousand times more."

DREAM TEAM: Commerford traverses the hills around his Malibu, California hometown with supreme-athlete superstars like Laird Hamilton, John McEnroe, hockey star Chris Chelios and Lance Armstrong. "Actually, I haven't heard from Lance in a while," Commerford says. "Maybe it's because if you're friends with George Bush, you're not allowed to ride with the bass player from Rage Against the Machine!"