Sir Elton John will feature on the next Alice In Chains album.
Elton will be heard playing piano on the title track to the album ‘Blue Gives Way To Blue’, Alice In Chain’s tribute to their late singer Layne Staley.“I’ve long been an admirer of Jerry Cantrell and when he asked me to play on ‘Black Gives Way To Blue,’ I was very flattered and couldn’t resist,” says Sir Elton in a statement. “It was a great recording session with Alice In Chains for a beautiful song. “
“Elton was finishing his Red Piano run in Vegas, so we flew there and hung out for a few hours,” says AIC’s Jerry Cantrell. “Walking into a studio and seeing the sheet music for that song on Elton’s piano made it meaningful on so many different levels. The whole experience was pretty magical.”
So how did the Elton collaboration come about? “We were thinking about adding piano to the track and a friend suggested we call Elton,” Cantrell said. “I remember laughing and saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll get right on that.’ But I decided it was worth trying and wrote Elton an email explaining what that song means to us, that it’s a real, raw openhearted song for Layne. We sent him the track and got a call shortly after saying he thought it was beautiful and that he wanted to play on it. We were blown away. Elton John is a huge influence on me as a songwriter and having him on that song is an amazing honor for us.”
‘Blue Gives Way To Blue’ will be the first Alice In Chains album in a decade and first since the death of Staley. It will be released in September.
Tracklisting is:
1. “All Secrets Known”
2. “Check My Brain”
3. “Last Of My Kind”
4. “Your Decision”
5. “A Looking In View”
6. “When The Sun Rose Again”
7. “Acid Bubble”
8. “Lessons Learned”
9. “Take Her Out”
10. “Private Hell”
11. “Black Gives Way To Blue”
