 |
|
Above: Dorothy records “Key to the Highway” for SLASH’s Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “This is one of the blues standards that I’ve been playing with Johnny and Teddy in our blues band since we first hooked up way back in like 1997 or ‘96 maybe. It was the first song on my list of songs to do for this record. The original was done by Freddie King, and we stayed somewhat true to the original arrangement-wise. We kick the tempo up a little bit just to make it rock a little harder. It’s a very open-ended type of a one, four, five blues progression, but it’s got a little bit of a swing to it. It’s just a cool song. And then I asked Dorothy, who’s this great American blues and rock singer, who has a distinctive raspy and soulful voice, to sing it. Dorothy came in and did a kickass job on it. There’s a lot of different versions of the song out there, so I sent her some of the ones that I liked, and she came up with her own version of the vocal approach for the song and it came out amazing.”
6. “Awful Dream” featuring Iggy Pop on vocals.
Written by Sam (Lightnin’) Hopkins, Clarence Lewis, C. Morgan Robinson
|
 |
|
Above: Iggy Pop records “Awful Dream” on SLASH’s Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “Oh, now, this is an interesting story. When I got the Blues band back together, I had an idea for the overall feel and the vocalists in my head for the whole thing, and as we went from song to song, we found the right fit. In our conversations about singers, Iggy Pop is somebody that I’ve been friends with and worked with for many years, and I really have the utmost admiration and respect for him. Johnny, our bassist mentioned that Iggy said in an interview he’d like to do something in the blues genre. I’d never heard that, so I called Iggy, and we talked about the record. Since I didn’t have a song earmarked for him yet, I asked him if there was a particular song he would like to do, and he said ‘Awful Dream’ by Lightnin’ Hopkins. Listening to the original track, I imagine it’s Lightnin’ Hopkins sitting on a stool with an acoustic with a pickup, and a very old school, primitive version of an electric-acoustic, and then there’s someone in the background playing very loose drums, and you can tell it’s a one-take almost made up on the spot recording. So, I very loosely learned that version. Iggy came to my studio in L.A., and we just sat down, he was on one stool, and I was on another, and I had my man, Michael Jerome come in and play some drums, and we just grabbed the tape live. So, it’s really, really very cool, and spontaneous. Iggy’s interpretation of that song is actually sort of sublime. And I think it’s something that nobody’s ever heard from him. Then there’s something cool on it at the very end of the track. We’re just playing the vamp out and I have my headphones on and I’m hearing this thing that sounds like a harmonica and I turn around and it’s Iggy singing the harmonica parts. It is really cool. So yeah, that was a very special moment on the record.”
7. “Born Under a Bad Sign” featuring Paul Rodgers on vocals.
Written by William Bell and Booker T. Jones
|
 |
|
Above: Paul Rodgers records “Born Under a Bad Sign” for SLASH’s Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “One of my favorite all-time favorite Albert King songs, and one of the coolest blues rock riffs that I grew up listening to ‘Born Under a Bad Sign’ was a no brainer and we did our own version of it and created our own arrangement. Then Paul Rogers, who is somebody I’ve worked with before and is a good friend, came into the studio. You know, he’s got the most amazing blues voice, he’s somebody that everybody in the 60s in England admired. Paul is a top blues vocalist, he was in Free and went on to do Bad Company, and then he did a bunch of different things after that. I asked him if he would sing it, and he did an amazing job. I can’t even say amazing job—it’s just so perfect.”
8. “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” featuring Demi Lovato on vocals.
Written by Barrett Strong and Jesse Norman Whitfield
|
 |
|
Above: SLASH and Demi Lovato in the studio for Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “This song is the most left-of-center for a sort of blues cover record because it’s a song by The Temptations, which is really R&B. From 1972, I grew up with this song and it was a really popular song in the early ‘70s when I was a kid. It’s a cool song, and an adventure in and of itself. The original version is super long, as in 10 minutes long, if not longer. And it’s got this an amazing instrumental arrangement to it. I mean, the whole song is amazing. We used to jam it back in the 90s with another band that I had called Snakepit that Johnny Griparic, our bass player, was also in. So, I definitely wanted Demi to do this song because the subject matter of the song is basically about the unsavory habits of an absent father who eventually passes away that the kids are asking their mom about, as in ‘What’s this about our dad that we’ve never met, and we hear all these stories about?’ It’s a very dark and personal kind of subject matter, therefore whoever sings it can’t just cover it for the sake of covering it, they have to be able to relate to it in some way. I’ve been friends with Demi Lovato for a few years now and I wanted a strong female voice to sing it. She has that really young and powerful voice that has this kind of, not an entirely innocent delivery, but definitely an almost childlike quality to it. I asked her to do it because Demi’s had some interesting stories in her past and she jumped at the idea. I had no idea how she was going to react to the question, but she totally knew and related to the song. Demi came in and did an amazing job. It was really, really fun to do this song with her.”
9. “Killing Floor” featuring Brian Johnson of AC/DC on vocals.
Written by Chester Burnett (Howlin’ Wolf)
*With special guest Steven Tyler of Aerosmith on harmonica.
|
 |
|
Above: Brian Johnson of AC/DC performs vocals on “Killing Floor” for SLASH’s Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “Killing Floor is by Howlin’ Wolf, one of the giants of American blues. He had a very sort of cool and unique style and sound, and ‘Killing Floor’ is only one of his most well-known songs. It’s been covered quite a few times, but it’s a great guitar riff and it’s a solid groove and I’ve always wanted to cover that. It’s a little bit of a different arrangement than the original, it is actually a combination of two of his songs, it’s ‘Killing Floor’ and then there’s a touch of a ‘Spoonful’ guitar riff in there as well, two of my most favorite riffs. In trying to figure out who to sing it, I wanted somebody who had a nice, gruff voice for it. And Brian Johnson from AC/DC was the first that came to mind, and he said, ‘Yeah, come on down and we’ll do it’. I went to Florida with my producer and Brian fucking ripped out a killer version of ‘Killing Floor’. Instead of doing it in his characteristic AC/DC voice, he did it an octave lower. Which is great because that’s really how the song is. If he’d sung it the other way it would have probably been better if AC/DC did it, so it worked out really great. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith came down to the studio in L.A. and I played it for him, and he wanted to be on it. So, he grabbed his harmonica and jumped into the studio and played on it. It was very spontaneous and great. He sort of has a vocal on there. He screams in between playing the harp, it’s really cool. It’s definitely capturing a moment and I walked away proud that I managed to get that.” |
 |
|
Above: Steven Tyler records harmonica for “Killing Floor” on SLASH’s Orgy of the Damned.
10. “Living for the City” featuring Tash Neal on vocals.
Written by Stevie Wonder
*With special guest background vocals: Jenna Bell and Jessie Payo.
|
 |
|
Above: Tash Neal performs “Living in the City” for SLASH’s Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “‘Living for the City’ is a Stevie Wonder song, and another song that I grew up with. There was a period in my childhood where Steve Wonder was definitely the background music, and he was all my Mom played. ‘Living for the City’ was one of my favorite songs, and it stuck with me. Lyrically, there’s some different things happening in that song, a story being told, and then towards the end of the song musically it breaks down and it goes into the sound of the city in New York and the main protagonist of the story gets arrested. It gave me this visual in my mind and it always stuck with me. The fun thing about doing this record, was that we could do whatever the fuck we wanted. Back in the 90s we did a version of Steve Wonder’s ‘Superstition,’ and I didn’t want to do that because that song has been covered to death. So, the idea of doing a Stevie Wonder song wasn’t like, ‘Oh, we have to do a Stevie Wonder song. I said, Well, let’s do another song that I liked.’ We truncated the arrangement a little bit, so it’s a little shorter than the original. We didn’t try and emulate the city sounds or make it sound like the original version. But Tash Neal, who sings and plays guitar on the whole record, and the forthcoming tour, did a fucking fantastic job singing this song. So yeah, I’m really happy with it. It’s definitely something, and if ‘Papa was a Rolling Stone’ was unexpected, this song will be even more so.”
11. “Stormy Monday” featuring Beth Hart on vocals.
Written by T-Bone Walker
|
 |
|
Above: Beth Hart performs “Stormy Monday” in the studio for SLASH’s Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “This is one of the pretty famous blues standards, and I think most people are familiar with the Etta James version of it, which was from the 60s. There’s been many versions of this song, but I was always pretty taken by the Etta James version, so it was a song I knew I wanted to do. The Allman Brothers also did a great version as well and we played it back in the 90s with Blues Ball, and I just loved soloing on it and whatnot. I immediately thought of Beth Hart, who’s a fucking amazing American blues vocalist and she has been around for a little while. Everybody loves to play with Beth because she’s this ferociously emotional, female vocalist that just lays it all on the fucking table when she sings. I asked her to do it and she said, ‘Yeah, I would love to do it, but let’s do it in a minor as opposed to the original, which is major.’ So that just took the song in a whole different color, and it makes our version very original, but it’s also really, really effective. She came in and did this song in one take and collapsed on the floor when she was done. It was right when we were actually in the studio, doing the live tech in that first week. We’re in there and she comes in and I think the band had played the song one time by itself, and then Beth got there, and we went into it. And that was it and we knew we could not top that phenomenal first take with her.”
12. Metal Chestnut
Written by SLASH
|
 |
|
Above: SLASH performs “Metal Chestnut” in the studio for Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “It’s not a cover and there’s no one singing. ‘Metal Chestnut’ is an instrumental and I wrote it specifically for Orgy of the Damned because Mike Clink our producer said, ‘Well hey, you don’t have anything that you’ve written for the record.’ I hadn’t even thought about it, so I went home, wrote something, and brought it back and started to jam the song with the band. It’s just a real simple tune that came together quickly and organically. It wasn’t forced, but I didn’t specifically have it in my mind to write something. I wrote this one quickly and then put the guitars on it at my studio. It’s a very honest and emotional little piece.”
Orgy of the Damned showcases a lesser-heard aspect of SLASH’s musical prowess. While he has always embraced a broad range of styles and genres, the new album offers a rare opportunity to explore a unique side of his playing and bring to the forefront a rollicking journey through his strong blues inspirations, that have long been in the background of his illustrious career.
Following are the S.E.R.P.E.N.T Festival 2024 North American Dates with Warren Haynes Band, Keb’ ‘Mo, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Robert Randolph, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, ZZ Ward, Jackie Venson, and Larkin Poe: |
 |
| * Warren Haynes Band, Samantha Fish, and Eric Gales
** Keb’ ‘Mo, Samantha Fish, and Jackie Venson
# Keb’ ‘Mo, ZZ Ward ,and Jackie Venson
$ Keb’ ‘Mo, ZZ Ward, and Robert Randolph
+ Larkin Poe, ZZ Ward, and Robert Randolph
^ ZZ Ward and Robert Randolph
^^Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, ZZ Ward, and Robert Randolph |
|
