Jerry Cantrell is hitting the road tonight for his solo first North American tour, and is celebrating with a deluxe version of his new album I Want Blood.
The deluxe version features spoken word versions of each of the songs on I Want Blood alongside their own 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."
Get I Want Blood here and catch Cantrell on the road with Filter starting tonight. The trek kicks off on January 31 in Niagara Falls, ON and makes its way across the country, concluding in Cantrell’s home state of Washington at the Moore Theatre in Seattle. Tickets are available here.
1/31 Niagara Falls, ON Fallsview Casino Resort
2/1 Sayreville, NJ Starland Ballroom
2/2 Portland, ME Aura
2/4 Boston, MA Citizens House of Blues Boston
2/5 New York, NY Irving Plaza
2/7 Silver Spring, MD The Fillmore – Silver Spring
2/8 Bensalem, PA Parx Xcite Center
2/11 Huntington, NY The Paramount
2/12 Norfolk, VA The NorVa
2/14 Raleigh, NC The Ritz
2/15 Atlanta, GA Buckhead Theatre
2/16 Louisville, KY Mercury Ballroom
2/18 Columbus, OH The Bluestone
2/19 Indianapolis, IN Murat Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
2/22 St. Louis, MO The Hawthorn
2/23 Chicago, IL The Vic Theatre
2/25 Tulsa, OK Tulsa Theater
2/26 Houston, TX House of Blues Houston
2/27 San Antonio, TX The Aztec Theatre
3/1 Mesa, AZ The Nile Theater
3/2 Las Vegas, NV House of Blues Las Vegas
3/4 Los Angeles, CA The Belasco
3/5 Ventura, CA The Majestic Ventura Theater
3/7 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory – Spokane
3/8 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
3/9 Seattle, WA Moore Theatre