When asked to pull up a lyric from his new album, Who We Used to Be, that sums up its ethos, James Blunt’s response is telling. He cites a starry-eyed verse from “Some Kind of Beautiful,” with references to winging through Elysia, shots in the dark and nights that never end. The kicker line: “Heaven’s a place where the lines get crossed.”

“It just feels spontaneous and exciting,” the singer/songwriter we all know for 2004’s “You’re Beautiful,” and its album, Back to Bedlam, tells GRAMMY.com. More than that, it’s reflective of a sea change in his artistry 19 years on — the self-proclaimed past purveyor of “selfish songs about myself” is actively singing outside of himself.

“The questions of life are about not just whether I'll be all right,” says the now-husband and father, ”but whether my children will be all right, the passing of time and how it goes so quickly and that fear that you'll miss out on that time with them.”

Every song on Who We Used to Be is permeated with this empathetic energy; another key line for him comes from “Glow”: "I hope that this night never ends," he wishes aloud. “It's just that thing — life moves pretty fast,” Blunt says. And it certainly did in the Back to Bedlam days — and he feels lucky to still have a fruitful career, with a renewed label deal under his belt.

Read on for an interview with the five-time GRAMMY nominee about how Who We Used to Be came to be, his memories of the mid-2000s music business, and the self-proclaimed irony of putting out a Greatest Hits release. (“I always joke it should be called Greatest Hit and Songs I Wish You Heard,” he cracks.)

This interview has been edited for clarity.

What was the initial creative spark that led to Who We Used to Be?

I think I'm just at a stage of my life where I've got a ton of different things going on, and that was what I was just going to write about is just the things that were inspiring me at the moment.

And once upon a time, I was this young man with a dream to be a musician with so many questions of whether I would achieve that ambition, that dream. Who would I be? Where would I go? Who would I meet? Those kind of things.

I've reached this stage in my life where lots of those questions have been answered. I've met the person I hope to live with for the rest of my life and married her and started a family. And I've been in the music business now for a little while, so I can feel pretty safe about that as a job.

All the questions I had when I was an aspiring musician, many of them have been answered. But at the same time, I've been thrown a ton of new questions. My parents are getting old, and they need looking after. Instead of them looking after me when I was a child, it's my turn to look after them.

My position in the world is changing, because I'm a family man, in charge of a family. Having kids raises these questions. And also there are moments of celebration and moments of sadness along the journey.

I've been in the business now for 20 years. I've lost some friends… obviously, you write about those losses along the way, and lost some battles along the way. But fundamentally, it's also an album of celebration.

If I'm the guy who wrote “You’re Beautiful” about a girl I saw in a subway for one second, then having met the girl who I'm hoping to spend the rest of my days with, the songs better have bigger statements than just saying “You’re beautiful” to her.

So, that's why this album's got great celebratory songs saying "All the love that I ever needed/ I got it from you," as an example. Oh, “I heard there's a song that God only knows and it's keeping me dancing beside you/ Nobody here knows how the melody goes, but it's keeping me dancing beside you.”

That's kind of the idea: just to capture where I'm at now, with its highs and with its lows.

What would you tell that guy who wrote “You’re Beautiful” if you could?

Don't take the blue pill. [Chuckles.] I don't know. I mean, that the same rules apply as now as when you're starting out, which are: follow your instinct. Don't be pushed into following what other people think is best for you, necessarily, particularly when it comes to art and music.

So whilst I have a beautiful relationship with my record label [Atlantic Records, since 2003], and I'm very lucky to be with them, sometimes, when you just go on your own journey, that's what makes things stand out.

How did starting a family change your perspective on art and the world?

Well, I used to write selfish songs about myself — about what was going on in my mind. Now, I write songs with other people in my mind, instead — of people who are more important than me to me.

The questions of life are about not just whether I'll be all right, but whether my children will be all right, the passing of time and how it goes so quickly and that fear that you'll miss out on that time with them.

So, there's a song on this album called “Glow,” and it just says, "I hope that this night never ends." It's just that thing — life moves pretty fast. Yeah so that would be it really, just thinking about other people, songs about other people rather than just about myself.

Build a bridge from that song to another in the tracklisting. Give me another one that takes you out of yourself.

Well, pretty much all of them, I would think. “Saving a Life” is about someone else and the struggle that they have. As a friend to that person, it seems like the answer is so obvious. The way out of the struggle is so easy, but if that person doesn't want that kind of help, then it's not for you to help them.

It's a frustrating feeling. And everyone has that kind of friend who is either in financial difficulty or is in relationship difficulty or has a problem with addiction. You want to help them. But there's an ocean between you, and you can't.

The obvious other song on this album is a song called “Dark Thought” for Carrie Fisher, which it took me just a number of years to actually dive into — 2016. So it's taken me a while to write.

*James Blunt. Photo: Michael Clement*

How did this translate to the music itself? How did it come to reflect that sense of empathy?

I don't think I necessarily thought that the two had to go hand in hand. Each song has got a different idea, a different subject. And with that, every production has been just in keeping with the song, rather than anything else.

What do you remember about building up these songs, and imbuing each with its own character?

Once upon a time, I would get in a studio for maybe four months with a producer like Tom Rothrock, who did my first albums. And we would just bury ourselves to make a body of work that was all interrelated and connected, recorded at the same time, in the same way, with the same musicians. There was a great beauty to that.

I've spoken to him about, "I missed that. I haven't done that with this album." More recently, what I do is I write a song with the guys that I'm in with. We produce it then and there. And there are pros and cons to doing that.

The con is that you don't craft that song as often and as much as I'd like. Sometimes, we want to go back in and change a lyric and it seems annoying. I have to go and see someone in Copenhagen when I just want to change one lyric, one word.

And then, at the same time, the problem I've had sometimes with albums that I've crafted over a long period of time is they lose their spontaneity. You have demo-itis; people will go, "Oh my God. I love the demo." And then you can just smooth off all the edges.

So, by writing a song and recording a song then and there, it keeps its excitement. It keeps that freshness of a fresh idea.

How did you and your accompanists jointly craft the sound of the record, the way you wanted it to strike the listener?

With everything I do, I just know that the more honest it is, the less considered, the less pretentious, the more genuine, then the more the audience will all connect to it. People can really hear that in me.

So, each song has a different production on it, because each song deserves a different kind of production. I just know to not overthink it, but just to enjoy and feel it.

How would you compare recordmaking and album cycles in 2023 to back when you got started?

It's a faster turnover. It's, sometimes, less considered. It's got this kind of organic spontaneity, which is great fun. If I had my way, I think I'd probably prefer to go and sit in a studio and do it over a decent few months. But sometimes, life moves pretty fast.

Back then, how did your relationships change when you skyrocketed to global fame?

Well, they say fame changes you, but they're wrong. Fame changes everybody else.

You walk down the street, and suddenly, when you get famous, everyone on the street behaves really strangely towards you. They all want a selfie and say "Hello," and they can just respond differently. And so you kind of react to that. In the long term, you have to adapt to that.

But for me, I'm an English guy who was in the Army, who went to a boarding school. Sent away to boarding school when I was 7. I was very, very independent. But when the madness of the music business took hold, that's when I called my parents. I hadn't really seen them since I was 7 years old, not properly. I've just left home at that stage. And then I called them up.

And I've always joked that my parents never saw me again. They put me into boarding school and never saw me again until I was famous. But the real truth is I called them when I got famous saying, "I really need support. I really need my family around me.”

When I've been spoiled — behaved like a trumped up little pop-star — they'd smack me down and tell me to act like a normal human being.

And my friends, of course, from whether it be the army or from school or from university, if I was struggling with the press, I could call someone in the army and they'd say, "You think you're having it hardcore. So-and-so's leg has just been blown off here in Afghanistan." That kind of would put things in perspective.

So, my close friends, and my family, have always been the same throughout that time, and I'm very grateful to them. Because I think they're the ones who've kept me a grounded, normal human being.

I think what I was really lucky about is, I got into this business fairly late. I had a proper job. I was 28 when I got in the business. They always talk about young people who get in the business early. There's always that thing. You never grow older than the age you get famous. So, if Michael Jackson got famous at whatever age, he never grew up beyond that age.

And you can see a lot of young people who go into the music business, they don't have a chance then to mature as adults anymore. And I was just lucky to have got in when I was older.

Now that you’ve broken into this fresh emotional territory, what do you feel is next for you?

My Greatest Hits was released a couple of years ago. That was the end of my record deal. And then, fortunately for me, my record label called up and said, "We'd love to sign you up to a new deal."

Now, as you can imagine, the greatest hits, presumably, has all your best songs on it. So all these next songs that I'm releasing now or releasing in the future, none of them are going to be on my greatest hits. It already exists. So these songs are all just gravy. These are all bonus tracks in my life. So I'm just having great fun. I'm kind of liberated by the experience.

Train's Pat Monahan Revisits Every Song On Drops Of Jupiter 20 Years Later: "I'm A Lot Happier Than I Was Back Then"

Music's Biggest Night, the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards, will air live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

In the weeks leading up to the telecast, we will take a stroll through some of the golden moments in GRAMMY history with the GRAMMY Rewind, highlighting the "big four" categories — Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist — from past awards shows. In the process, we'll discuss the winners and the nominees who just missed taking home the GRAMMY, while also shining a light on the artists' careers and the eras in which the recordings were born.

Join us as we take an abbreviated journey through the trajectory of pop music from the 1st Annual GRAMMY Awards in 1959 to this year's 53rd telecast. Today, the GRAMMY Awards remember the year the Dixie Chicks were flying high.

49th Annual GRAMMY Awards
Feb. 11, 2007

Album Of The Year
Winner: Dixie Chicks, Taking The Long Way
Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
John Mayer, Continuum
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium
Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds

This Album Of The Year win was just the tip of a huge year for the Dixie Chicks, all of which was welcome vindication for the group after a politically charged comment made by singer Natalie Maines at a concert in 2003 had cost the group some fan and radio support. GRAMMY voters rose above the controversy to reward the album's merits. The group would win four GRAMMYs this year, and have won 12 to date. Gnarls Barkley (producer Danger Mouse and singer Cee Lo Green) teamed for a galvanizing album that drew from pop as much as the collaborators' roots in hip-hop. Mayer's Continuum won the Best Pop Vocal Album trophy, and marked his conscious awareness of the social issues of his generation, evidenced by his GRAMMY-winning "Waiting On The World To Change." The Red Hot Chili Peppers earned a nomination with the sprawling Stadium Arcadium, a 28-song double album released in a CD/digital-download age in which double albums rarely exist. Timberlake, the former 'N Sync star, rounded out the nominees with a modern-day, blue-eyed soul record, which ambitiously reached the top of the Billboard 200 in 2006. 

Record Of The Year
Winner: Dixie Chicks, "Not Ready To Make Nice"
Mary J. Blige, "Be Without You"
James Blunt, "You're Beautiful"
Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy"
Corinne Bailey Rae, "Put Your Records On"

The Dixie Chicks took Record Of The Year on the strength of "Not Ready To Make Nice," a fiercely defiant song that contained lines that spoke volumes about their trials, including death threats: "How in the world can the words that I said/Send somebody so over the edge/That they'd write me a letter/Sayin' that I better shut up and sing or my life will be over." "Be Without You" was equally heartfelt, with Blige pouring her soul into every word in her typical no-holds-barred approach, withholding no emotion. "You're Beautiful" was the ballad of the year, a soft ode to the perfection of a woman from the past, just out of the singer's reach. Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" captivated listeners with its combination of retro-soul, inescapable hooks and cutting-edge production. Brit newcomer Rae brought a jazzy feel to the neo-soul of "Put Your Records On," though she started out inspired by all-female punk groups such as L7.

node: video: Dixie Chicks Win Record Of The Year

Song Of The Year
Winner: Dixie Chicks, "Not Ready To Make Nice"
Mary J. Blige, "Be Without You"
James Blunt, "You're Beautiful"
Corinne Bailey Rae, "Put Your Records On"
Carrie Underwood, "Jesus, Take The Wheel"

The Dixie Chicks completed their sweep of the "big four" categories for which they're eligible with a Song Of The Year win for "Not Ready To Make Nice," which the group wrote with Dan Wilson, whose band Semisonic scored a Best Rock Song GRAMMY nomination for "Closing Time" in 1998. Blige co-wrote "Be Without You" with hot R&B writers Johnta Austin, Bryan-Michael Cox and Jason Perry. Blunt wrote "You're Beautiful" with Amanda Ghost and Sacha Skarbek. Ghost, former president of Epic Records, also received a nomination for her production work on Beyoncé's GRAMMY-nominated Album Of The Year, I Am…Sasha Fierce, at the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards. Rae teamed with John Beck and Steve Chrisanthou for "Put Your Records On." Beck's credits include Tasmin Archer's "Sleeping Satellite," a Top 40 hit in 1993. Finally, Underwood scored a No. 1 Country Singles hit with "Jesus, Take The Wheel," a tune written by country songwriting stalwarts Brett James, Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson. The track also picked up Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance honors.

node: video: "Not Ready To Make Nice" Wins Song Of The Year

Best New Artist
Winner: Carrie Underwood
James Blunt
Chris Brown
Imogen Heap
Corinne Bailey Rae

Underwood became the first, and so far only, "American Idol" alumnus to win the Best New Artist award. It was a solid choice, as the singer has gone on to win five GRAMMY Awards in her still growing career. Blunt's five nominations this year didn't result in any wins, but were a testament to the impact this newcomer made. Brown has earned four more nominations since his Best New Artist nod as he continues to develop an impressive career. Heap may not have won here, but she became the first female to win the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, GRAMMY in 2009 for Ellipse. Rae also missed the cut, but would win the next year in the Album Of The Year category as part of the ensemble cast assembled by Herbie Hancock for his River: The Joni Letters album.

node: video: Carrie Underwood Wins Best New Artist

Come back to GRAMMY.com tomorrow as we revisit the milestone 50th Annual GRAMMY Awards. Tune in to the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

Follow GRAMMY.com for our inside look at GRAMMY news, blogs, photos, videos, and of course nominees. Stay up to the minute with GRAMMY Live. Check out the GRAMMY legacy with GRAMMY Rewind. Keep track of this year's GRAMMY Week events, and explore this year's GRAMMY Fields. Or check out the collaborations at Re:Generation, presented by Hyundai Veloster. And join the conversation at Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

IPod Named Decade's Top Music Moment
Apple's introduction of the iPod in 2001 was named Billboard's top music moment of the decade. Other moments making the top 10 included the death of Michael Jackson in 2009, the launch of "American Idol" in 2002, the introduction of YouTube in 2005, and Led Zeppelin's reunion concert in 2007. (12/29)

James Blunt Tops UK Decade Album Chart
James Blunt's Back To Bedlam (2004) was the decade's top-selling album in the UK with sales of 3.1 million copies as of 2008, besting Dido's No Angel (1999), according to the Official Charts Company. Amy Winehouse's Back To Black (2006) was No. 3, followed by Leona Lewis' Spirit (2007) and David Gray's White Ladder (1998). (12/29)

Music Video Games Sales Decline In 2009
Sales of music video games will total $700 million in 2009, down 50 percent from sales of $1.4 million in 2008, according to a Wedbush Morgan Securities report based on data from NPD Group. The projected decline is due to sales of new high-profile releases not meeting forecasted sales expectations. "The Beatles: Rock Band," which has sold 800,000 units, failed to meet first-month sales forecasts of 1 million units; "Guitar Hero 5" sold 500,000 units in its first month compared to "Guitar Hero III," which sold 1.4 million units in its first month in 2007; and "DJ Hero"'s sales of 123,000 units in its first days of release led analysts to cut their yearly sales forecast from 1.6 million units to 600,000 units. (12/29)
 

Billie Eilish has never been one to shy away from her feelings. In fact, she doubles down on them.

Since her debut EP, 2017's Don't Smile At Me, the pop star has held listeners' hands as she guides them through the darkest pages of her diary. The EP found a teenage Eilish navigating heartbreak while her blockbuster debut album, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? — which swept the General Field Categories (Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best New Artist) at the 2020 GRAMMYs — was a chilling and raw look into her depression-fueled nightmares. And 2021's Happier Than Ever had her confronting misogyny and the weight of fame.

She could have easily succumbed to the pop star pressures for her third studio album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, out today (May 17). Instead, she reverts to her sonic safe space: creating intimate melodies with her brother and day-one collaborator, FINNEAS. Only this time, the lyrics are more mature and the production is more ambitious.

"This whole process has felt like I'm coming back to the girl that I was. I've been grieving her," Eilish told Rolling Stone about how HIT ME HARD AND SOFT revisited elements of WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? "I've been looking for her in everything, and it's almost like she got drowned by the world and the media. I don't remember when she went away."

Here are five takeaways from Billie Eilish's new album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, where Old Billie is resuscitated and comforted by New Billie. 

Heartbreaking Ballads Are Her Sweet Spot

Tenderness remains at Eilish's core, and it's beautifully highlighted on HIT ME HARD AND SOFT. Despite her love for eccentric electro-pop beats, ballads have always been the singer's strong suit. After she first displayed that in her debut single, 2015's "ocean eyes," Eilish won two GRAMMYs and an Oscar for her delicate Barbie soundtrack standout, "What Was I Made For?" — and the magic of her melancholic balladry returned on the new album.

HIT ME's album opener, "SKINNY," mimics the self-reflection of Happier Than Ever's "Getting Older" opener, where she painfully sings about Hollywood's body image standards. "People say I look happy just because I got skinny/ But the old me is still me and maybe the real me/ And I think she's pretty," she muses. 

"WILDFLOWER" cuts in the album's center like a knife to the chest. Eilish's comparisons to a lover's ex-girlfriend are devastating over a bare piano melody — the simplest production on the LP: "You say no one knows you so well/ But every time you touch me, I just wonder how she felt."

HIT ME Isn't Afraid To Get A Little Weird

What makes Eilish so intriguing is her effortless balance between misery and mischief. On lead single "LUNCH," the singer/songwriter taps into the playful attitude of WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? smash "bad guy."

Over an upbeat and kooky production, she lets her carnal fantasies about devouring a woman run wild. The fantasies continue on "THE DINER," with Eilish stepping into the stalker mindset that may be inspired by her own life (she was granted a five-year restraining order against an alleged stalker last year). "I came in through the kitchen lookin' for something to eat/ I left a calling card so they would know that it was me," she winks on the chorus.

She Lays The "Whisper Singing" Criticism To Rest

Eilish's subdued voice has been chided as much as it's been lauded. She first gave naysayers the middle finger on Happier Than Ever's title track, nearly screaming in the song's latter half. On her latest album, she showcases her range even further, from bold belts to delicate falsettos.

The gauzy synths and vocal yearning of "BIRDS OF A FEATHER" is the perfect summer anthem, soundtracking the feeling of kissing your lover as the salty Los Angeles breeze runs through your hair. On the second half of "THE GREATEST," she unleashes a wail-filled fury. 

"HIT ME HARD AND SOFT was really the first time that I was aware of the things that I could do, the ways I could play with my voice, and actually did that," she recently told NPR Music. "That's one thing I feel very proud of with this album — my bravery, vocally."

Her Vulnerability Hasn't Waned

Eilish is quite the paradox, as her superpower is her emotional fragility. Her music has doubled as confessionals since the beginning of her career, and that relatable vulnerability threads HIT ME together. Despite its lighthearted nature, "LUNCH" marks the first time the singer has discussed her sexuality in a song.

"That song was actually part of what helped me become who I am, to be real," Eilish told  Rolling Stone of "LUNCH." "I wrote some of it before even doing anything with a girl, and then wrote the rest after. I've been in love with girls for my whole life, but I just didn't understand — until, last year, I realized I wanted my face in a vagina. I was never planning on talking about my sexuality ever, in a million years. It's really frustrating to me that it came up."

Then there's "SKINNY," which is a raw insight into how much social media's discussions of her body and fame affected her. "When I step off the stage, I'm a bird in a cage/ I'm a dog in a dog pound," she sings. "BLUE," the album's closer, finds Eilish accepting her state of post-breakup sorrow: "I'd like to mean it when I say I'm over you, but that's still not true."

FINNEAS Has Unlocked A New Production Level

FINNEAS — Eilish's brother, producer and confidant — has grown as much as his younger sister since they first began creating music together. He continues to challenge himself both lyrically and sonically to excitedly push Eilish to her creative limits. He explores a myriad of sounds on the album, with many playing like a two-for-one genre special. Named after Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away heroine, the glittery melody and thumping bassline on "CHIHIRO" transport you into an anime video game. 

The first half of "L'AMOUR DE MA VIE" is deceptively simple with its plucking acoustic guitar strings, but soon finds itself under the glare of a disco ball with Eilish's vocals funneled through a vocoder. "BITTERSUITE" is arguably the best reflection of Finneas' experimentation: it starts out with Daft Punk-esque synths before dragging itself across a grim, bass-heavy floor. Then, it crawls into cheeky elevator music territory before ending with an alien-like taunt.

HIT ME HARD AND SOFT is begging to be played live, as seen with fans' raucous reactions after the singer's listening parties at Brooklyn's Barclays Center and Los Angeles' Kia Forum. Fortunately for fans in North America, Australia and Europe, it won't be long before she brings the album to life — HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR  kicks off on Sept. 29 in Québec, Canada.

In the pantheon of rock guitar gods, Slash ranks high on the list of legends. Many fans have passionately discussed his work — but if you ask him how he views his evolution over the last four decades, he doesn't offer a detailed analysis.

"As a person, I live very much in the moment, not too far in the past and not very far in the future either," Slash asserts. "So it's hard for me to really look at everything I'm doing in the bigger scheme of things."

While his latest endeavor — his new studio album, Orgy Of The Damned — may seem different to many who know him as the shredding guitarist in Guns N' Roses, Slash's Snakepit, Velvet Revolver, and his four albums with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, it's a prime example of his living-in-the-moment ethos. And, perhaps most importantly to Slash, it goes back to what has always been at the heart of his playing: the blues.

Orgy Of The Damned strips back much of the heavier side of his playing for a 12-track homage to the songs and artists that have long inspired him. And he recruited several of his rock cohorts — the likes of AC/DC's Brian Johnson, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, Gary Clark Jr., Iggy Pop, Beth Hart, and Dorothy, among others — to jam on vintage blues tunes with him, from "Hoochie Coochie Man" to "Born Under A Bad Sign."

But don't be skeptical of his current venture — there's plenty of fire in these interpretations; they just have a different energy than his harder rocking material. The album also includes one new Slash original, the majestic instrumental "Metal Chestnut," a nice showcase for his tastefully melodic and expressive playing.

The initial seed for the project was planted with the guitarist's late '90s group Slash's Blues Ball, which jammed on genre classics. Those live, spontaneous collaborations appealed to him, so when he had a small open window to get something done recently, he jumped at the chance to finally make a full-on blues album.

Released May 17, Orgy Of The Damned serves as an authentic bridge from his musical roots to his many hard rock endeavors. It also sees a full-circle moment: two Blues Ball bandmates, bassist Johnny Griparic and keyboardist Teddy Andreadis, helped lay down the basic tracks. Further seizing on his blues exploration, Slash will be headlining his own touring blues festival called S.E.R.P.E.N.T. in July and August, with support acts including the Warren Haynes Band, Keb' Mo', ZZ Ward, and Eric Gales.

Part of what has kept Slash's career so intriguing is the diversity he embraces. While many heavy rockers stay in their lane, Slash has always traveled down other roads. And though most of his Orgy Of The Damned guests are more in his world, he's collaborated with the likes of Michael Jackson, Carole King and Ray Charles — further proof that he's one of rock's genre-bending greats.

Below, Slash discusses some of the most memorable collabs from Orgy Of The Damned, as well as from his wide-spanning career.

I was just listening to "Living For The City," which is my favorite track on the album.

Wow, that's awesome. That was the track that I knew was going to be the most left of center for the average person, but that was my favorite song when [Stevie Wonder's 1973 album] Innervisions came out when I was, like, 9 years old. I loved that song. This record's origins go back to a blues band that I put together back in the '90s.

Slash's Blues Ball.

Right. We used to play "Superstition," that Stevie Wonder song. I did not want to record that [for Orgy Of The Damned], but I still wanted to do a Stevie Wonder song. So it gave me the opportunity to do "Living For The City," which is probably the most complicated of all the songs to learn. I thought we did a pretty good job, and Tash [Neal] sang it great. I'm glad you dig it because you're probably the first person that's actually singled that song out.

With the Blues Ball, you performed Hoyt Axton's "The Pusher" and Robert Johnson's "Crossroads," and they surface here. Isn't it amazing it took this long to record a collection like this?

[Blues Ball] was a fun thrown-together thing that we did when I [was in, I] guess you call it, a transitional period. I'd left Guns N' Roses [in 1996], and it was right before I put together a second incarnation of Snakepit.

I'd been doing a lot of jamming with a lot of blues guys. I'd known Teddy [Andreadis] for a while and been jamming with him at The Baked Potato for years prior to this. So during this period, I got together with Ted and Johnny [Griparic], and we started with this Blues Ball thing. We started touring around the country with it, and then even made it to Europe. It was just fun.

Then Snakepit happened, and then Velvet Revolver. These were more or less serious bands that I was involved in. Blues Ball was really just for the fun of it, so it didn't really take precedence. But all these years later, I was on tour with Guns N' Roses, and we had a three-week break or whatever it was. I thought, I want to make that f—ing record now.

It had been stewing in the back of my mind subconsciously. So I called Teddy and Johnny, and I said, Hey, let's go in the studio and just put together a set and go and record it. We got an old set list from 1998, picked some songs from an app, picked some other songs that I've always wanted to do that I haven't gotten a chance to do.

Then I had the idea of getting Tash Neal involved, because this guy is just an amazing singer/guitar player that I had worked with in a blues thing a couple years prior to that. So we had the nucleus of this band.

Then I thought, Let's bring in a bunch of guest singers to do this. I don't want to try to do a traditional blues record, because I think that's going to just sound corny. So I definitely wanted this to be more eclectic than that, and more of, like, Slash's take on these certain songs, as opposed to it being, like, "blues." It was very off-the-cuff and very loose.

It's refreshing to hear Brian Johnson singing in his lower register on "Killing Floor" like he did in the '70s with Geordie, before he got into AC/DC. Were you expecting him to sound like that?

You know, I didn't know what he was gonna sing it like. He was so enthusiastic about doing a Howlin' Wolf cover.

I think he was one of the first calls that I made, and it was really encouraging the way that he reacted to the idea of the song. So I went to a studio in Florida. We'd already recorded all the music, and he just fell into it in that register.

I think he was more or less trying to keep it in the same feel and in the same sort of tone as the original, which was great. I always say this — because it happened for like two seconds, he sang a bit in the upper register — but it definitely sounded like AC/DC doing a cover of Howlin' Wolf. We're not AC/DC, but he felt more comfortable doing it in the register that Howlin' Wolf did. I just thought it sounded really great.

You chose to have Demi Lovato sing "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." Why did you pick her?

We used to do "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" back in Snakepit, actually, and Johnny played bass. We had this guy named Rod Jackson, who was the singer, and he was incredible. He did a great f—ing interpretation of the Temptations singing it.

When it came to doing it for this record, I wanted to have something different, and the idea of having a young girl's voice telling the story of talking to her mom to find out about her infamous late father, just made sense to me. And Demi was the first person that I thought of. She's got such a great, soulful voice, but it's also got a certain kind of youth to it.

When I told her about it, she reacted like Brian did: "Wow, I would love to do that." There's some deeper meaning about the song to her and her personal life or her experience. We went to the studio, and she just belted it out. It was a lot of fun to do it with her, with that kind of zeal.

You collaborate with Chris Stapleton on Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well" by Peter Green. I'm assuming the original version of that song inspired "Double Talkin' Jive" by GN'R?

It did not, but now that you mention it, because of the classical interlude thing at the end... Is that what you're talking about? I never thought about it.

I mean the overall vibe of the song.

"Oh Well" was a song that I didn't hear until I was about 12 years old. It was on KMET, a local radio station in LA. I didn't even know there was a Fleetwood Mac before Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. I always loved that song, and I think it probably had a big influence on me without me even really realizing it. So no, it didn't have a direct influence on "Double Talkin' Jive," but I get it now that you bring it up.

Was there something new that you learned in making this album? Were your collaborators surprised by their own performances?

I think Gary Clark is just this really f—ing wonderful guitar player. When I got "Crossroads," the idea originally was "Crossroads Blues," which is the original Robert Johnson version. And I called Gary and said, "Would you want to play with me on this thing?"

He and I only just met, so I didn't know what his response was going to be. But apparently, he was a big Guns N' Roses fan — I get the idea, anyway. We changed it to the Cream version just because I needed to have something that was a little bit more upbeat. So when we got together and played, we solo-ed it off each other.

When I listen back to it, his playing is just so f—ing smooth, natural, and tasty. There was a lot of that going on throughout the making of the whole record — acclimating to the song and to the feel of it, just in the moment.

I think that's all an accumulation of stuff that I've learned over the years. The record probably would be way different if I did it 20 years ago, so I don't know what that evolution is. But it does exist. The growth thing — God help us if you don't have it.

You've collaborated with a lot of people over the years — Michael Jackson, Carole King, Lemmy, B.B. King, Fergie. Were there any particular moments that were daunting or really challenging? And was there any collaboration that produced something you didn't expect?

All those are a great example of the growth thing, because that's how you really grow as a musician. Learning how to adapt to playing with other people, and playing with people who are better than you — that really helps you blossom as a player.

Playing with Carole King [in 1993] was a really educational experience because she taught me a lot about something that I thought that I did naturally, but she helped me to fine tune it, which was soloing within the context of the song. [It was] really just a couple of words that she said to me during this take that stuck with me. I can't remember exactly what they were, but it was something having to do with making room for the vocal. It was really in passing, but it was important knowledge.

The session that really was the hardest one that I ever did was [when] I was working with Ray Charles before he passed away. I played on his "God Bless America [Again]" record [on 2002's Ray Charles Sings for America], just doing my thing. It was no big deal. But he asked me to play some standards for the biopic on him [2004's Ray], and he thought that I could just sit in with his band playing all these Ray Charles standards.

That was something that they gave me the chord charts for, and it was over my head. It was all these chord changes. I wasn't familiar with the music, and most of it was either a jazz or bebop kind of a thing, and it wasn't my natural feel.

I remember taking the chord charts home, those kinds you get in a f—ing songbook. They're all kinds of versions of chords that wouldn't be the version that you would play.

That was one of those really tough sessions that I really learned when I got in over my head with something. But a lot of the other ones I fall into more naturally because I have a feel for it.

That's how those marriages happen in the first place — you have this common interest of a song, so you just feel comfortable doing it because it's in your wheelhouse, even though it's a different kind of music than what everybody's familiar with you doing. You find that you can play and be yourself in a lot of different styles. Some are a little bit challenging, but it's fun.

Are there any people you'd like to collaborate with? Or any styles of music you'd like to explore?

When you say styles, I don't really have a wish list for that. Things just happen. I was just working with this composer, Bear McCreary. We did a song on this epic record that's basically a soundtrack for this whole graphic novel thing, and the compositions are very intense. He's very particular about feel, and about the way each one of these parts has to be played, and so on. That was a little bit challenging. We're going to go do it live at some point coming up.

There's people that I would love to play with, but it's really not like that. It's just whatever opportunities present themselves. It's not like there's a lot of forethought as to who you get to play with, or seeking people out. Except for when you're doing a record where you have people come in and sing on your record, and you have to call them up and beg and plead — "Will you come and do this?"

But I always say Stevie Wonder. I think everybody would like to play with Stevie Wonder at some point.

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