The project drops ahead of his first North American tour
Jerry Cantrell has released a deluxe version of I Want Blood. Featuring spoken word versions of each of the songs, the Cantrell-narrated pieces also feature their unique score with contributions from producer Joe Barresi, engineer Maxwell Urasky, Greg Puciato (Better Lovers, The Black Queen), Roy Mayorga (Ministry), Gil Sharone (Stolen Babies, Team Sleep), Rani Sharone (Stolen Babies), George Adrian (The Maybirds), composer Vincent Jones, and producer Michael Rozon.
“I wanted to do something special and I’ve never done a spoken word recitation of the lyrics, and I thought it might be kind of cool to have it on the B-side of ‘Vilified,’” Cantrell recalls in a recent interview with Scott Lipps. “I thought maybe it needs some music or something, and I was sitting there with Maxwell Urasky, my demo partner. He’s a really talented musician, and he said ‘Let me mess around with it for a night.’ He came back the next day with that piece of music, and it sounded killer. I brought it in to Joe Barresi and he said, ‘Man, you should do this with all of them.’ I got this creative stew going of sending the lyrics out to people, having them come up with the music, and sending it back. We ended up with nine pieces of really interesting takes on the lyrics, but the music is done by creative partners of mine, and it has nothing to do with the real music, so it is truly a standalone piece.”
I Want Blood was recorded at Barresi’s JHOC Studio in Pasadena, California and features contributions from Guns N Roses’ Duff McKagan, Faith No More’s Mike Bordin, Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, Better Lovers’ Greg Puciato, Stolen Babies’ Gil Sharone, and Lola Colette.
The album is available on CD, digitally, and multiple 2 LP vinyl variants.
The Alice in Chains guitarist kicks off his first North American tour tonight (Fri, Jan 31st) in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
