Rev. Joseph "Run" Simmons, one-third of legendary rap group Run-DMC and more recently starring as a man of the cloth and beleagured father of seven (in other words, himself) in the hit MTV reality series Run's House, visited Houston Wednesday with his wife, Justine, to help build a brand-new playground at the Candlelight Oak Civic Club in Northwest Houston. Tuesday's project is the second in the Kool-Aid/KaBOOM! initiative's partnership to build playgrounds in inner-city neighborhoods. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly - hundreds of volunteers scurrying around hauling dirt, mixing cement and hammering things while listening to, um George Strait - until the skies opened, but Simmons swore the project would be finished today, rain or shine.

Here's what it looked like around 1:30 p.m.:

The Simmonses were kind enough to sit down for a short interview about KaBOOM!, Run's House and Simmons' pal Kid Rock, with whom (and Lynyrd freakin' Skynyrd!) he plays at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion next month.

Some more pictures of the bustling construction site after the jump, including a really sweet pile of dirt. Supposedly the Kool-Aid Man was running around somewhere, but once the skies opened - literally about 10 seconds after we finished the interview - I didn't stick around to see which fence he was going to burst through. I did throw in a few classic Run-DMC videos, though. - Chris Gray