MINNEAPOLIS � Jamie Foxx phoned promptly at 6 a.m. his time.
That�s not a typo.

�I�ve been up about an hour,� he said from Los Angeles. �But I went to sleep at, like, 7.�
Obviously, he hadn�t performed a concert the night before. But he is taking his Blame It Tour on a 50-city trek to prove that the Oscar-winning actor, comedian and radio host (�The Foxxhole� on Sirius XM) is serious about his music career.
The classically trained pianist, 41, promises that the concert will feature music from his two bestselling albums (2005�s �Unpredictable� and last year�s �Intuition�), tributes to Michael Jackson and George Strait (Foxx loved country growing up in Texas), and, yes, some comedy and impressions (President Obama, Ray Charles).
Q: You are famous for playing or mimicking other people in the movies and on TV. How did you go about finding your own singing voice?
A: I�ve been fortunate to have fun songs. I�ve been fortunate to run into Kanye West, a brilliant, brilliant musician who came to one of my house parties and put me on �Slow Jamz,� which is a fun song. Then we went from that to �Gold Digger,� which is a fun song, �Unpredictable,� a fun song. And then you have �Blame It,� a fun song. That is basically my voice, because the world always needs a fun song.
Q: �Blame It� spent a record 14 weeks at No. 1 on the R&B charts this spring and went to No. 2 on the pop list. Why was it so big?
A: It�s a combination of things. Where we are in music today with the Auto-Tune (a computer program that manipulates a singer�s voice), I think we captured the Auto-Tune the best in a long while � since T-Pain. And then having T-Pain on the song. Then the song says something that people have said throughout the years, �Man, I think I had one too many.� And then Ron Howard being in the video made it a pop song. Then the next thing you know it caught fire.
Q: You hooked up with Ron Howard and other stars at the Obama inaugural and they became part of the �Blame It� video. Did you think of giving President Obama an executive producer credit on the video?
A: I would love to, but I wouldn�t want to say that and then have the Internet go crazy and say �Jamie Foxx says Obama is blaming it on the alcohol.� Being at the inauguration was an absolutely incredible event.
Q: You�re trying to establish your credibility as a bona fide singer, yet you used Auto-Tune, which is known for compensating for wannabes who really can�t sing. Did you have second thoughts about using Auto-Tune?
A: Yeah, I did. It�s not real music. But my music guy, Breyon Prescott, said, �If you don�t do it, your R&B album will be in the grocery store in that little bin with the nail clippers and the flip-flops.�
Q: You were a terrific coach on �American Idol.� What advice would you give to yourself on how to get the world to take you seriously as a singer?
A: My advice to myself is go out to these 50 cities and get on a bus and do it how real musicians do it. And then bring people along. I got �Blame It,� but I want people to hear me sing. And you have to keep dropping albums and great songs.
Q: Where does your humor come from in your family?
A: Everybody in my family is hysterical. My grandmother was hysterical. My mother, who lives with me, is so, so hysterical. She�s like a sniper, just here and there. My sister�s hysterical. They�re all characters.
Q: What are your film plans?
A: Just finished �Law Abiding Citizen,� and I�m going to start on this movie called �Skank Robbers� with Martin Lawrence, where we rebirth our woman characters, Sha Na Na (from TV�s �Martin�) and Wanda (from TV�s �In Living Colour�). That�ll be out in fall 2010.