RELEASES STAR-STUDDED NEW SOLO ALBUM
‘ORGY OF THE DAMNED’
FEATURING VOCALS FROM BRIAN JOHNSON (AC/DC), CHRIS STAPLETON, IGGY POP, BETH HART, GARY CLARK JR, BILLY F. GIBBONS (ZZ TOP), PAUL RODGERS, CHRIS ROBINSON (THE BLACK CROWES), DEMI LOVATO, DOROTHY, AND TASH NEAL
AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE ON GIBSON RECORDS HERE
“PAPA WAS A ROLLING STONE”
NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO FEATURING DEMI LOVATO
OUT TODAY
SLASH BREAKS DOWN EVERY SONG AND COLLABORATION ON
‘ORGY OF THE DAMNED’
S.E.R.P.E.N.T. BLUES FESTIVAL — 2024 SUMMER TOUR
FEATURING
WARREN HAYNES BAND, KEB’ ‘MO, CHRISTONE “KINGFISH” INGRAM, ROBERT RANDOLPH, SAMANTHA FISH, ERIC GALES, ZZ WARD, JACKIE VENSON, AND LARKIN POE
TICKETS AND VIP PACKAGES AT SERPENTFESTIVAL.COM
Above: SLASH new album Orgy of the Damned, cover artwork by Toni Greis.
All SLASH assets, download HERE.
SLASH the iconic, GRAMMY®-winning guitarist and songwriter has released his highly anticipated sixth solo album titled Orgy of the Damned today, May 17 on Gibson Records HERE. SLASH’s Orgy of the Damned is now available worldwide digitally, and on vinyl and CD HERE.
Today, Friday, May 17, SLASH has also revealed the third single and a new video for “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” featuring Demi Lovato’s powerhouse vocals. Watch/share the “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” video which portrays Demi Lovato, SLASH and his blues band Johnny Griparic (bass), Teddy ‘ZigZag’ Andreadis (keyboards), Michael Jerome (drums), and Tash Neal (vocals/guitar) recording the song in the studio fused with historical footage and a 70s raw energy and vibe befitting the song HERE.
“Slash is a legendary talent and friend I’ve known for years, so I was thrilled to collaborate with him again for his project. He brought such an amazing energy when we were in the studio and reimagining this iconic song together was effortless and fun. He had such a clear vision for the song and I’m grateful that he wanted to honor my story. I’m so proud of what we created!”
— DEMI LOVATO
A vibrant homage to the blues, SLASH’s star-studded blues album and sixth solo album of his career overall, Orgy of the Damned is a collection of 12 dynamic songs that revitalize the blues with a stripped-down approach. Celebrating both well-known and largely undiscovered songs, SLASH offers a nostalgic nod to the past while reinvigorating the songs with his inimitable guitar playing and the spirit of collaboration. On Orgy of the Damned, the acclaimed guitarist reteamed with storied producer Mike Clink and enlisted the album’s diverse guest vocalists, which include Gary Clark Jr., Billy F. Gibbons, Chris Stapleton, Dorothy, Iggy Pop, Paul Rodgers, Demi Lovato, Brian Johnson, Tash Neal, Chris Robinson, and Beth Hart. Rounding out his blues band in the studio and on the road, SLASH reunited with two of his bandmates from his Blues Ball outfit in the 90s, bassist Johnny Griparic and keyboardist Teddy ‘ZigZag’ Andreadis, and brought on drummer Michael Jerome and singer/guitarist Tash Neal.
On Orgy of the Damned, everything was played live in the room, with an emphasis on improvisation which resulted in a collection of energized songs that are vital and raw. Highlights include “Oh Well” with outlaw country star Chris Stapleton’s gritty vocals on the beloved early Peter Green/Fleetwood Mac tune, listen HERE, and the Howlin’ Wolf-penned first single “Killing Floor” an electrifying collaboration with Brian Johnson of AC/DC on vocals, and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith on harmonica, listen HERE. “Hoochie Coochie Man,”–written by Willie Dixon and made famous by Muddy Waters–showcases the album’s the in-the-moment nature and unrestrained energy with Z.Z. Top’s Billy F. Gibbons stepping in on guitar and vocals, Gary Clark Jr. joins in for a rowdy take on Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads,” and Beth Hart stuns on the twanging and soulful rendition of T. Bone Walker’s “Stormy Monday.” Some of the songs, like Steppenwolf’s “The Pusher,” Charlie Segar’s “Key to the Highway,” and Albert King’s “Born Under a Bad Sign,” had been performed by Slash’s Blues Ball, while others, like Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City,” were long-time favorites for SLASH. Check out SLASH’s full breakdown of all the songs and artist collaborations on Orgy of the Damned below.
Next week, SLASH will perform songs on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, tune-in on Monday, May 20, Tuesday, May 21, and Wednesday, May 22 to watch SLASH perform a selection of songs from his new blues album alongside Cleto and the Cletones airing at 11:35 PM (ET/PT)/10:35 PM (CT) on ABC, as well as the following day on Hulu and YouTube. On Wednesday, May 29, SLASH will perform an acoustic set in store at Amoeba in Hollywood. Capacity is limited, to attend the SLASH at Amoeba Hollywood, visit HERE: .
Launching this summer, SLASH has curated an all-star Blues lineup for the first-ever S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Blues Festival which stands for Solidarity, Engagement, Restore, Peace, Equality N’ Tolerance to bring fans together to celebrate the spirit of the Blues, and to perform with other Blues artists he admires who share his love of the genre. SLASH’s S.E.R.P.E.N.T. festival artists include Warren Haynes Band, Keb’ ‘Mo, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Robert Randolph, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, ZZ Ward, Jackie Venson, and Larkin Poe. On all dates, SLASH will perform alongside his Blues band featuring bassist Johnny Griparic, keyboardist Teddy ‘ZigZag’ Andreadis, drummer Michael Jerome, and singer/guitarist Tash Neal. For all S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Blues Festival dates, visit: SerpentFestival.com.
The S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival is designed with maximum social impact in mind and SLASH has chosen five nonprofit organizations to directly benefit from touring proceeds to help lift marginalized communities and support mental health initiatives that share his restorative focus of elevating lives for the benefit of all. Through PLUS1.ORG, the S.E.R.P.E.N.T Festival will donate a portion of the proceeds from every VIP package, as well as every Ticket sold, directly to NAMI the National Alliance on Mental Illness, The Equal Justice Initiative, Know Your Rights Camp, The Greenlining Institute, and War Child. For details on all S.E.R.P.E.N.T Festival VIP packages, visit serpentfestival.com/vip.
Below SLASH gives a full breakdown of the songs and artist collaborations on Orgy of the Damned:
1. “The Pusher” featuring Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes on vocals and harmonica.
Written by Wayne Hoyt Axton
Above: Chris Robinson records “The Pusher” from Slash’s Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “‘The Pusher’ is an old Steppenwolf song. Yeah, I’ve always loved Steppenwolf, but I particularly like this song, and it was a song that we used to do in Slash’s Blues Ball back in the 90s. I definitely wanted to bring it back around and it’s a good example of a song that’s not a standard blues song. It’s a 60s rock and roll sort of drug song. Anyway, I had the idea to do it and Chris Robinson was the first guy that I brought into the studio, and he was totally down to do it. He came into to the studio and brought his harmonica and we did three different takes, all entirely different, and just played the harmonica and vocals live. We took the one that we liked the best and that was it.”
2. “Crossroads” featuring Gary Clark Jr. on vocals, rhythm guitar/solo.
Written by Robert Leroy Johnson
Above: Gary Clark Jr. records “Crossroads” for SLASH’s Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “Originally, we had talked about doing the Robert Johnson version of this song, which was a diverse thing, but as I started to get into it, I realized I wanted to do on a more electric version, so I started to sort of go more along the lines of the live Cream version. It’s definitely influenced more by Cream and their sound. I met Gary Clark Jr. a few years ago and he’s probably one of the best young blues guitar players to come along in a really long time, a soulful, emotive guitar player and vocalist. Gary came down to the studio and we kept the whole live version with our blues band, and then he did a killer vocal.”
3. “Hoochie Coochie Man” featuring Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top on vocals, rhythm guitar/solo.
Written by Willie Dixon
Above: Billy F. Gibbons records “Hoochie Coochie Man” for SLASH’s Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “This is one of the sexiest songs, well, all of the Muddy Waters material is. One of the great things about Muddy Waters was there was a certain sexual quality to his voice, his tone, and his cadence. Then he added this insane fucking rhythm section that was just like, I don’t know, I can’t think of any music that’s really (excuse my French), but that you want to fuck to more. And, anyway, so I wanted to cover this particular song, but do it in a unique way… Because it’s a commonly covered riff and so many people have their own take on this particular very, very simple tune. It’s a rhythm and a certain kind of very simple three note pattern. We did a version of it that was as close to the original vibe that the Muddy Waters thing had. Our drummer who played on this record is Michael Jerome, and he’s got that groove really, really down and he was the perfect drummer to be able to put this together. Once the music was basically done, I’d always thought about Billy Gibbons doing the vocals. I chased Billy down and he added the vocals and some guitar in a studio in Palm Springs. That’s how it all came together. It’s very live, a very live sounding track, which is really cool. It sounds like you’re in a bar somewhere. I had Les Stroud play on harmonica. He’s a friend of mine and he was always talking about his harp playing and it turns out he’s a really fucking accomplished harp player. So, Les came down to our studio and put the harp on it.”
4. “Oh Well” featuring Chris Stapleton on vocals.
Written by Peter Alan Green
Above: Chris Stapleton records “Oh Well” for SLASH’s Orgy of the Damned.
SLASH: “So, this is the original Fleetwood Mac, which was founded by Peter Green, one of the greatest singer-songwriter-guitar players, he’s less known in the public, but very well known to us guitar players re the 60s British blues and he’s up there with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Mick Taylor. He sort of had a misadventure with drugs and disappeared early in his career, but he had some great fucking songs and ‘Oh Well’ is one of my favorites. I remember hearing the song on the radio when I was probably 13, they used to play both the older version of Fleetwood Mac and the new version of the band with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham a lot. I always loved this song, and it’s a great guitar riff. I jammed it with the Blues Ball back in the ‘90s, and I’ve played it live here and there. I knew from the beginning I wanted to do the song on this record. It was also one of the songs that I was trying to figure out who would be the right vocalist for it, and one of the ideas I had was Chris Stapleton, who is one of the most brilliant singer songwriters today. He’s also got such a gritty and distinctive voice, so I called him up and he did an amazing job. I mean, his voice is so cool.”
5. “Key to the Highway” featuring Dorothy on vocals.
Written by Charles Segar, William Broonzy
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
Follow Slash Online:
Photographer and Editor/Founder of AllMusicMagazine.com. My love of live music has taken me to incredible experiences with the top bands of all time in stadium shows to the smallest venues with equally inspiring musicians. Using the medium of photography and my publication, these memories will last forever.