Erik “Everlast” Schrody’s new record, “Whitey Ford Sings The Blues,” opens with a 45-second introduction titled “The White Boy Is Back.”

But to compare his comeback to those of his pioneering rap peers would be misleading — as Everlast never really left. His last album with House of Pain was released just two years ago.

And this white boy’s comeback is not a musical one, but a personal one.

“When I quit House of Pain, I didn’t know if I wanted to make records anymore,” Everlast said from a Los Angeles hotel room. “So from a personal standpoint, yeah, it’s a comeback. But the way everybody’s approaching this record, it’s actually conquering a whole new continent of music for me. It’s not like coming back to somewhere I dominated before.”

Everlast’s comeback gets even more intimate. Less than a year ago, on the final day of recording “The Blues,” Everlast tore a muscle in his heart and was rushed to the hospital for emergency open-heart surgery.

It was a turning point in his life and ironically served as a fitting intro to his new, more mature lifestyle.

“When you get older, you want to do things that are a little more substantial,” he said. “I don’t drink anymore, I’m not into all that stuff I used to be into.”

“The Blues” is what House of Pain would sound like if Johnny Cash was the frontman. It’s soulful, guitar rock with hip-hop beats and Everlast’s signature fierce rhymes.

“I’m just sick of what’s going on,” he said. “I’ve been doing hip-hop for years and just watching it decline. It seems to be making more money and getting worse at the same time. I think rap is going through its Motley Crue/Poison stage right now.”

Everlast is a longtime b-boy who got his start in the late ’80s with Ice T’s L.A.-based Rhyme Syndicated Cartel. He released his first solo album in 1990, “Forever Everlasting,” then left to form House of Pain with pals Danny “Danny Boy” O’Conner and Leor “DJ Lethal” Dimant.

Released in 1992, the single “Jump Around” launched the group to superstar status, which it would redeem in 1994 with “Same As It Ever Was” and again in 1996 with “Truth Crushed To Earth Shall Rise Again.”

When House of Pain called it quits later that year, Everlast took a much-needed rest from rap, until friend and producer Dante Ross let him know he was wasting his talent.

“He was kind of like, ‘What the fuck are you doing? When are you going make a record?'” Everlast said. “He was real supportive. ‘You’re one of the only white boys who can do this right,’ he said. So we just went into the studio. It wasn’t about making a record. But all of the sudden, it was like, we had an album.”

“Whitey Ford Sings The Blues” is a huge leap for Everlast, who admits he had to learn to sing for the first time. Its first single, “What It’s Like,” was immediately embraced by MTV’s “120 Minutes,” a first for the purebred rapper.

“I can’t target anyone,” Everlast said. “If I did, this record wouldn’t be as varied as it is. Why can’t I be on Hot 97 and K-Rock at the same time? I didn’t make those labels up. I’m not asking the alternative guy to play my hip-hop, and I’m not asking the hip-hop guy to play my alternative.”

Everlast is only asking one thing — that hip-hop fans give his new record a chance.

“Everything I like about music I tried to put on this record,” he said. “It came up with itself almost. I never made two records that sounded alike, and I don’t ever plan to do it. The next record may be jazz, who knows?”

Only Everlast, in his own little house of pain.