Billy Morrison will release The Morrison Project — his third solo album and first since 2015 — on April 19th via The Label Group/Virgin Music Group.
The British guitarist, singer, and songwriter — primarily known as Billy Idol‘s rhythm guitar player for the past 15 years alongside lead guitarist Steve Stevens, and for his previous role as bassist in The Cult — has assembled an electrifying 12 songs including guest performances by Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol, DMC, Al Jourgensen, Steve Vai, Steve Stevens, Linda Perry, Tommy Clufetos, John 5, and more.
The official music video for the album’s second single, Crack Cocaine, featuring Osbourne and Stevens, with Clufetos on drums, can be seen below.
Crack Cocaine marks the first new song with Ozzy on vocals since the 2022 release of his worldwide smash album Patient Number 9 which earned him two Grammy Awards (“Best Rock Album”, “Best Metal Performance”).
“I was in the same room as Billy and Steve,” says Ozzy about co-writing the song. “The lyrics just came out of the blue. It was written in about 20 minutes.”
Billy sheds more light on the song’s origins, “The music was a direct result of sitting in a room with Steve, both with de-tuned guitars, and writing what we felt was an ultimate Ozzy riff. From there, we brought Ozzy over, and we all sat around working on the lyrics, but 90% of those came from Ozzy himself. He’s the one that suddenly stood up and sang ‘Like Crack Cocaine’. We looked at each other and knew we had the title.”
Importantly, reveals Steve, “First and foremost, Billy and I discussed what an Ozzy fan would really love to hear. We really zeroed in on the ’90s-era Ozzy, the truly heavy stuff. We cast aside any rules both musically and lyrically. It was really a great team and Billy is just such a great motivator. Obviously as a guitarist, to contribute to an Ozzy song is like a kid in a candy store. He’s played with such an amazing array of guitarists that I tried my best to honor that tradition.”
Adds Steve, “I think the fact that Billy and I have spent the better part of 16 years working together in Billy Idol means we are almost telepathic in how we arrange guitars, etc. Billy and Ozzy have such an amazing friendship that it was easy to feel inspired and want to help them achieve any idea I could assist with. As we worked in my home studio, I tried to make the actual recording process almost invisible. Forget any technical aspects and really have some fun. To Ozzy‘s credit, he was totally focused — and, man, the first time I heard him sing in what was essentially my living room, f-cking chills ran down my spine.”
The Morrison Project was produced by Billy Morrison, mixed by Barry Pointer and mastered by Dave Donnelly. All the songs on the album — recorded in Los Angeles at various studios — were written by Billy Morrison in collaboration with his guests.
“One of the greatest things about writing this album was being able to let my guest singers do their own thing,” says Morrison. “I would send them the track with no guidelines and just had them do whatever they felt. I think that gave those songs an energy and a life force that would not be there if I had tried to get involved in their lyrics or their melodies. And I loved everything they all did.”
He adds, “With the songs that I sing on this record, I wanted to write from an observational standpoint about the state of the world, the news outlets, the information flow (or lack of it) and the general sense of dis-ease that seems to be all-pervading right now.”
How did The Morrison Project come together? “I truly believe that making music without any preconceptions or goals yields the most creative and enjoyable results,” Billy says. “And that is exactly how this record came to life. Making music with Erik (Eldenius) and Jeordie (White) during Covid, and mixing different musical styles started my journey towards this collection of songs that ended up featuring a lot of my friends.”
“The Morrison Project” features 12 original tracks:
* Drowning (written by Billy Morrison/Erik Eldenius/Jeordie White)
* Crack Cocaine (featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Steve Stevens with Tommy Clufetos on drums) (written by Billy Morrison/ Ozzy Osbourne/Steve Stevens)
* It’s Come To This (written by Billy Morrison/Erik Eldenius)
* The Ayes Have It (featuring Al Jourgensen and John 5 with Roy Mayorga on drums) (written by Billy Morrison)
* Dystopia (written by Billy Morrison/Erik Eldenius/Jeordie White)
* Incite The Watch (featuring Corey Taylor and Steve Vai) (written by Billy Morrison, Erik Eldenius, Jeordie White, Corey Taylor)
* Puppets On A String (written by Billy Morrison/Erik Eldenius/Jeordie White)
* Just Like A Movie (featuring D.M.C. and Persia Numan with Erik Eldenius on drums) (written by Billy Morrison/Erik Eldenius/Jeordie White/ Darryl McDaniels/Persia Numan)
* The Sound Of Freedom (written by Billy Morrison, Erik Eldenius, Jeordie White)
* Mr. Dream (featuring Billy Idol and Steve Stevens) (written by Billy Morrison, Erik Eldenius, Jeordie White, Steve Stevens, Billy Idol)
* We Are The Dead (written by Billy Morrison, Erik Eldenius, Jeordie White)
* Chasing Shadows (featuring Linda Perry) (written by Billy Morrison)
2 Responses
The best song that the ‘Ozzmeister has done in ages.
Both Stevens and Morrison have that Zakk Wylde “No More Tears – Ozzmosis” tone and feel to their guitars’, which was always good.
If Ozzy is to do another album on his own, I think that he needs to go back and relook at that era of his career and build on that; maybe get these guys involved to help things along.
This guy Billy Morrison looks an awful lot like a Motorhead-era Brian Robertson. The song is decent. Ozzys voice sounds a little more natural than I’ve heard from recent recordings. It would be nice if he would do an album with all his surviving well-known guitarists (Iommi,Gillis and Lee) and let THEM do the songwriting and maybe have Max Norman produce it without all the voice reverb.