Slash found the perfect singer for his cover of Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac song 'Oh Well'. The Guns 'N Roses guitarist roped in country rocker Chris Stapleton to get the song written by original co-founder Mac Green for the group's third studio album in 1969 Then Play On.
With Stapleton's signature heavy vocals driving the track, the blues rock tune from Slash's upcoming sixth solo album, Orgy of the Damned (May 17), fell on Friday morning (April 12). It finds the country singer growling the iconic lines, “I can't help the shape I'm in/ I can't sing, I'm not pretty and my legs are thin/ But don't ask me what I'm Thinkin' about you/ I might not give you the answer you want/ Oh well” over the lead guitarist's signature peeling riffs.
The song has a long history of covers, including covers by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, to Kenny Wayne Shepherd, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Haim, Aerosmith, Jason Isbell, Joe Jackson and the Eels, among many others.
“Well, this is the original Fleetwood Mac, founded by Peter Green, one of the greatest singer-songwriter-guitarists, he's lesser known to the public, but well known to us guitarists from the British blues of the 60s and it's up there with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Nick Taylor,” Slash said in a statement. “I remember hearing the song on the radio when I was probably 13, they were playing a lot of both the older version of Fleetwood Mac and the new version of the band with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. I've always loved this song and it's a great guitar riff. I jammed it with Blues Ball in the 90's and have played it live here and there. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do the song on this record. It was also one of the songs I was trying to figure out who would be the right singer for it, and one of the ideas I had was Chris Stapleton, who is one of the most brilliant singer songwriters out there today. He also has such a hard and distinctive voice, so I called him and he did an amazing job. I mean, his voice is so cool.”
It is the second single to date from Slash's album, following his previous version of the blues standard “Killing Floor”, featuring AC/DC singer Brian Johnson on vocals and Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler on harmonica.
Orgy described as a tribute to Slash's love of classic blues, featuring vocals from Gary Clark Jr., ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Dorothy, Iggy Pop, Paul Rodgers, Demi Lovato, Chris Robinson and Beth Hart. The house band backing the guitarist on the record included two of his 1990s bandmates from Blues Ball, bassist Johnny Griparic and keyboardist Teddy 'ZigZag' Andreadis, as well as drummer Michael Jerome and singer/guitarist Tash Neal .
The album's tracklist includes covers of songs by Robert Johnson, T. Bone Walker, Steppenwolf, Albert King, Stevie Wonder and Willie Dixon, among others. Robinson is this weekend's musical guest Saturday night live hosted by Ryan Gosling.
Slash will release the songs this summer with his SERPENT festival featuring Warren Haynes Band, Keb' 'Mo, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Robert Randolph, Samantha Fish, Eric Gales, ZZ Ward, Jackie Venson and Larkin Poe. The North American tour is scheduled to begin on July 5th at the KettleHouse Amphitheater in Bonner, Montana.
Check out Slash's preview and listen to the full song below.
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