So there we were driving home from Umhlanga Rocks after a Sunday at the beach, East Coast Radio on our dial.
"That was Green Day's latest hit," said a familiar voice. My heart skipped a beat.
Could it really be he who has been fired a few times from radio, he who has tenaciously carved out a career from YFM to Metro and back again, he who is the rock star DJ of rock star DJs? Daddy, is that you?
Yup, it is. Chilli M, or Daddy as he is known to his legion of fans on YFM, has moved to Durban and has a weekend show on East Coast Radio (ECR).
"I'm very relaxed in Durban," the big man told me a few days later over some drinks on the Ushaka pier.
"I started my show on the Vodacom July weekend. Radio is a lifestyle and I'm a radio DJ through and through. I embodied the youth at YFM. At age 32 I fall within the ECR target market and the LSM."
But just how did he land up in Durban of all places and at East Coast of all stations?
"When I was suspended from YFM I had to have a game plan. It was inevitable that I was going to be fired from the station for playing DJ Twitty, who was not on the playlist.
"I am known for breaking new songs, that's what I specialised in. However, YFM had new management and a different style. They changed the blueprint and the fine print."
Chilli M was one of the old guard still remaining at this revolutionary youth station, having been one of YFM's founding members.
"I had a good stay at the station where I became a household name. YFM was definitely one of my career highlights."
He said, however, that he found it unfair because one of his colleagues, DJ S'bu, was suspended for a month, also for deviating from the playlist, but was later reinstated.
(Perhaps Chilli's forgotten the incident where he had a meltdown on his drive-time show and was marched off to rehab )
"They made a sacrificial lamb out of me to the new DJs: 'Look what we did to Chilli M, so you better obey.'"
He then approached ECR as he had always been a fan.
"Their culture is not about DJs and big names. It simply gives good radio to an audience who know what they want. ECR listeners are passionate about their brand and the station and that's the security I need as a DJ. Besides, I'm a Durban boy, having grown up in KwaMashu."
He also won a bursary and attended one of the top private schools in the province.
Besides his radio show, Chilli is working on a clothing range and an events company. "I'm also doing lots of family time. I tried getting on a surf board again, but it just sank," he chuckles.
He's done vocals on DJ Cndo's upcoming album and has also worked with Big Nuz and DJ Sox. In fact, on DJ Sox's El Porte, the story goes that Chilli arrived with a bottle of champagne and, armed with two glasses of bubbly, entered the booth. The result is one of the biggest hits from Sox's album, on which Chilli rattles on in Hispanic Zulu.
"I'm not a musician. I booth. Give me some champagne and I'll rock the mic!" he says of his session work with these artists.
Of his sudden disappearance from Gauteng, Chilli said he had a new audience to worry about in KZN. "At the moment I don't have features yet, I'm getting to know the culture better.
"But I'm no longer Daddy. I'm officially the Landlord, so make sure your rent is up to date." He pauses before adding: "After all, we do come from good schools, don't we, or what was the point?"