London-born guitarist Billy Morrison has worked with the best. Spending the last 15 years as co-gunslinger to Steve Stevens in Billy Idol's band, he's also worked with The Cult, and was a key player in Camp Freddy; the legendary jam collective that featured some of the biggest names in music. Releasing a new album under his own name, for 'The Morrison Project' - released 19th April 2024 - he's even roped in best mate Ozzy Osbourne, as well as a number of others from his impressive phone book. Chatting the album, as well as his storied career, we caught up with Billy via Zoom.
Photo: Jane Stuart.
How are you Billy?
I'm good. I'm a little tired. We had a big album launch event last night here in LA, so it was a late night into early morning, but that's that's part of the job.
Where was the launch held?
So, I have a couple of radio shows here on Sirius XM, so we had a whole day at Sirius headquarters in Los Angeles. We recorded an album special where they dissected it track by track, with an invited studio audience, and I gave everyone a copy of the album. Then at night, it was 100 of my closest friends running around listening to the album.
I have to say any time I've been to LA, as soon as I jump in the hire car, I tune into Sirius and I try and find your show.
Thank you, man. Yeah, I wish it was a worldwide thing because everyone enjoys Sirius over here. Even I listen to comedy when I'm driving, just because it keeps the road rage down. But it's all on Sirius and it's a shame that the UK can't get it.
We're here to talk about 'The Morrison Project', and wow, it's dystopian sounding, isn't it? There's even a track called 'Dystopia'!
Yeah, I mean, it might be the punk rocker in me. First of all, I didn't set out to write an album. I was just messing around in my studio, but I certainly didn't sit down to write one of the most angry records I've ever heard. I'd like to think I'm not an angry guy, but maybe when I create, the internal anger from living in this world and watching what we all go through comes out, because it is an angry record. And that's fine, that's okay; we all feel anger, and I'd rather my anger come out in a creative way than any other way. So, the song 'Dystopia' very, very much is a statement about where I think we're headed as a society.
It is angry, and it's heavy as hell with electronic beats, but it's also really melodic.
Well, thank you very much. I grew up with melody, and here's the thing; my favourite band of all time is the Sex Pistols, and I believe they changed the face of rock and roll with twelve songs and a nineteen-month career. That's pretty hard to do, and when you break down any of those twelve songs on 'Nevermind the Bollocks', they are three-minute pop songs. They are steeped with melody and harmony. Yes, they're angry and [Johnny] Rotten is screaming, but there's some great melodies in that. All the stuff I like is like that. I love The Wildhearts. Ginger is the melody king. So I've grown up with melody, and I don't think I could write a song that was was devoid of melody. You know, even my guitar solos, I like to have them down in South America; when you play in South America, the fans sing the guitar solo. You can't do that if it's just a million notes a second.
The album kicks off with 'Drowning', which is a perfect example of that.
You know, 'Drowning', I would hope we can all identify with. It came out of COVID, and towards the end of COVID I felt like I was drowning in misinformation. There was so much being thrown at us every day; you'd put the TV on one day and they'd say; "we've got the solution; it's wear a paper mask". And the next day they'd say; "no, that's not working, you've got to take a vaccine, Oh, not this vaccine, this vaccine", and there was so much information coming at us I felt like I was drowning. I felt like I was going under a pile of information, too much information. There were riots, political unrest, global pandemic, financial collapse, I mean, it's a lot for human beings, and so that was a song written about that. It was a riff that I'd written in COVID with Jeordie [White] and Erik [Eldenius], and I knew it was a winning riff. So when you know you have a winning riff, you follow it through and you make a song.
That was one of the first tracks that people heard; was there a reason why it was chose as a lead single?
Basically, everyone who heard the album went; "Drowning' is a winner. It's a great". It's a great first single; it has a message that everyone can relate to, it had a great melodic chorus, and it's a mid-paced, heavy riff. All the songs on the record have their own winning qualities, but what you want from a first single is something you know, I know people that don't know who I am, and they're particularly walking around, going; [sings the chorus] "Drowning"! It's a catchy chorus. That's what you want.
I'm good. I'm a little tired. We had a big album launch event last night here in LA, so it was a late night into early morning, but that's that's part of the job.
Where was the launch held?
So, I have a couple of radio shows here on Sirius XM, so we had a whole day at Sirius headquarters in Los Angeles. We recorded an album special where they dissected it track by track, with an invited studio audience, and I gave everyone a copy of the album. Then at night, it was 100 of my closest friends running around listening to the album.
I have to say any time I've been to LA, as soon as I jump in the hire car, I tune into Sirius and I try and find your show.
Thank you, man. Yeah, I wish it was a worldwide thing because everyone enjoys Sirius over here. Even I listen to comedy when I'm driving, just because it keeps the road rage down. But it's all on Sirius and it's a shame that the UK can't get it.
We're here to talk about 'The Morrison Project', and wow, it's dystopian sounding, isn't it? There's even a track called 'Dystopia'!
Yeah, I mean, it might be the punk rocker in me. First of all, I didn't set out to write an album. I was just messing around in my studio, but I certainly didn't sit down to write one of the most angry records I've ever heard. I'd like to think I'm not an angry guy, but maybe when I create, the internal anger from living in this world and watching what we all go through comes out, because it is an angry record. And that's fine, that's okay; we all feel anger, and I'd rather my anger come out in a creative way than any other way. So, the song 'Dystopia' very, very much is a statement about where I think we're headed as a society.
It is angry, and it's heavy as hell with electronic beats, but it's also really melodic.
Well, thank you very much. I grew up with melody, and here's the thing; my favourite band of all time is the Sex Pistols, and I believe they changed the face of rock and roll with twelve songs and a nineteen-month career. That's pretty hard to do, and when you break down any of those twelve songs on 'Nevermind the Bollocks', they are three-minute pop songs. They are steeped with melody and harmony. Yes, they're angry and [Johnny] Rotten is screaming, but there's some great melodies in that. All the stuff I like is like that. I love The Wildhearts. Ginger is the melody king. So I've grown up with melody, and I don't think I could write a song that was was devoid of melody. You know, even my guitar solos, I like to have them down in South America; when you play in South America, the fans sing the guitar solo. You can't do that if it's just a million notes a second.
The album kicks off with 'Drowning', which is a perfect example of that.
You know, 'Drowning', I would hope we can all identify with. It came out of COVID, and towards the end of COVID I felt like I was drowning in misinformation. There was so much being thrown at us every day; you'd put the TV on one day and they'd say; "we've got the solution; it's wear a paper mask". And the next day they'd say; "no, that's not working, you've got to take a vaccine, Oh, not this vaccine, this vaccine", and there was so much information coming at us I felt like I was drowning. I felt like I was going under a pile of information, too much information. There were riots, political unrest, global pandemic, financial collapse, I mean, it's a lot for human beings, and so that was a song written about that. It was a riff that I'd written in COVID with Jeordie [White] and Erik [Eldenius], and I knew it was a winning riff. So when you know you have a winning riff, you follow it through and you make a song.
That was one of the first tracks that people heard; was there a reason why it was chose as a lead single?
Basically, everyone who heard the album went; "Drowning' is a winner. It's a great". It's a great first single; it has a message that everyone can relate to, it had a great melodic chorus, and it's a mid-paced, heavy riff. All the songs on the record have their own winning qualities, but what you want from a first single is something you know, I know people that don't know who I am, and they're particularly walking around, going; [sings the chorus] "Drowning"! It's a catchy chorus. That's what you want.
There's a lot of big name guests on the album, but it's your project, and at the end of the day, you want your vocal to be heard first, don't you?
Yeah, if you look at the track listing, it goes a song with me singing, a song with a guest, a song with me, a song with a guest, and that's by design. It is difficult. I didn't intend to have all these people on the album. What you have to understand is I had a bunch of music, and I didn't know I was going to make a record with it. I was just having fun. Sharon [Osbourne] then called me and said; "this song 'Crack Cocaine' that you did with Ozzy" - which this is hugely generous of her - "we think you should put it out as a single. Ozzy will do a video, we'll do some press", and now I've got a bunch of half finished songs, and an Ozzy Osbourne vocal, right? And I thought; "well, it's a waste just putting out one song, I guess I'll revisit all that music and make a cohesive body of work, and some of the songs I can sing". I could hear myself singing, and I wrote lyrics and I sang it, and then I arrived at a bunch of songs, which quite frankly, to serve the song and not my ego. needed a better singer.
So that's when you reached out to some other singers?
I'm not the greatest singer in the world; I can do angry boy a quite well, you know? Well, when you get 'Chasing Shadows', the piano ballad, no one wants to hear me try and give a heartfelt performance on a ballad. But Linda Perry? Yes. So I then started calling friends - not people that I wanted to try and get to. Everyone on the album is in my phone. I love them, they love me, and everyone said yes. So now you have an album with six songs that I sing, and six songs that the guests sing, but it is my album, it's my cohesive vision. It's all my music, and a lot of it is my lyrics. so you've got to think; "how do you show the world what this is without being confusing?" Well, the first thing is you make sure the first single is something I sing, so 'Drowning' made sense for that.
Speaking of guests, and 'The Ayes Have it' features Al Jourgensen; he's perfect on that sort of industrial track.
Oh, why not Ministry? I mean, I wrote some songs for Ministry on the last couple of albums, and the riff is just a Ministry riff that never got used. It was a riff, and we made a whole song out of it, and of course, when you've got a riff like that, it's the same as 'Crack Cocaine'; that riff, there's only one person that can sing it and give it justice. I'm sure I could act my way through it, but no one wants to hear that. So each of the guests are perfect for the song that we had, and 'The Ayes Have It', who else is going to sing that other than Al?
Yeah, if you look at the track listing, it goes a song with me singing, a song with a guest, a song with me, a song with a guest, and that's by design. It is difficult. I didn't intend to have all these people on the album. What you have to understand is I had a bunch of music, and I didn't know I was going to make a record with it. I was just having fun. Sharon [Osbourne] then called me and said; "this song 'Crack Cocaine' that you did with Ozzy" - which this is hugely generous of her - "we think you should put it out as a single. Ozzy will do a video, we'll do some press", and now I've got a bunch of half finished songs, and an Ozzy Osbourne vocal, right? And I thought; "well, it's a waste just putting out one song, I guess I'll revisit all that music and make a cohesive body of work, and some of the songs I can sing". I could hear myself singing, and I wrote lyrics and I sang it, and then I arrived at a bunch of songs, which quite frankly, to serve the song and not my ego. needed a better singer.
So that's when you reached out to some other singers?
I'm not the greatest singer in the world; I can do angry boy a quite well, you know? Well, when you get 'Chasing Shadows', the piano ballad, no one wants to hear me try and give a heartfelt performance on a ballad. But Linda Perry? Yes. So I then started calling friends - not people that I wanted to try and get to. Everyone on the album is in my phone. I love them, they love me, and everyone said yes. So now you have an album with six songs that I sing, and six songs that the guests sing, but it is my album, it's my cohesive vision. It's all my music, and a lot of it is my lyrics. so you've got to think; "how do you show the world what this is without being confusing?" Well, the first thing is you make sure the first single is something I sing, so 'Drowning' made sense for that.
Speaking of guests, and 'The Ayes Have it' features Al Jourgensen; he's perfect on that sort of industrial track.
Oh, why not Ministry? I mean, I wrote some songs for Ministry on the last couple of albums, and the riff is just a Ministry riff that never got used. It was a riff, and we made a whole song out of it, and of course, when you've got a riff like that, it's the same as 'Crack Cocaine'; that riff, there's only one person that can sing it and give it justice. I'm sure I could act my way through it, but no one wants to hear that. So each of the guests are perfect for the song that we had, and 'The Ayes Have It', who else is going to sing that other than Al?
Photo; Jane Stuart.
Another one that really jumped out for me was 'Unsaved'; Corey Taylor is perfect for that one.
What an incredible vocal that is. I can tell you, there's no studio trickery on that. Basically, I texted Corey; "will you sing a song on my album?" He went; "yes brother, send it over". That was the extent of the communication. I didn't tell him what to sing, or how to sing it; I just sent him the music, and what you hear on the record is what he did. He sang all the parts and he just went; "here you go!", and I listened to it was like; "oh my god, yeah!" I mean that guy is one of the greatest rock singers we've got.
You've also got Steve Vai on that track as well, and his melodies are amazing, and then that solo; you must have been smiling from ear to ear when you heard that.
I was, and there's a story behind that. If you listen to the rhythm guitars behind that, it's all The Wildhearts; it's me tipping my hat to Ginger. There are three key changes, and three rhythmic changes, and it's all these different chord structures. It's total Ginger Wildheart, and when I listened to that, I'm like; "I can't solo over that", I'm just not going to do it justice... but I know a man who can! And I called Steve, and again, I did not talk him through it; what you hear on that solo is exactly. Steve's interpretation. You give someone a rhythm track, and it's incredible where he took it in his head.
So you're tipping your hat to Ginger, and Devin Townsend was in The Wildhearts for a bit, and he worked with with Steve Vai on the Vai project; it's all very connected.
I believe that there is a joy in collaboration, but a lot of artists don't want to collaborate. A lot of artists don't feel comfortable collaborating. I'm not going to name names, but there are many people that only feel comfortable in their band singing their music, and that's fine; I'm just not that guy. My whole career has been, you know, if you look at Camp Freddy, and now Royal Machines, I stand on stage with some of the greatest singers and guitar players in the world. As far as I'm concerned, I want to learn from them. I shut up, I've watched, I observe. Collaboration will make you a better creative.
With 'Crack Cocaine' you said you wanted to channel the ultimate Ozzy riff from the mid-90s period.
Yeah, 'No More Tears', oh my God, what an amazing song that is. Me and Steve [Stevens] did not sit down and go; "we want to write an Ozzy song"; what we had in our hands were detuned guitars, right? That's the Ozzy's tuning, and by default, when you start playing on a detuned guitar, most of what comes out sounds like Ozzy. So after about ten minutes, we were crafting that riff, and obviously, Steve knows that Ozzy is my best friend, I know that Ozzy is my best friend, so we're like; "if we do this, and we do this, now we're getting close to a real Ozzy Osbourne riff". So then we said, "let's try and make this that ultimate '90s Ozzy riff", you know, one that never got written. Luckily, when you song write, sometimes you get a moment in time. A lot of times you don't, a lot of times you're hacking away and maybe you make a song out of it, maybe you don't, but we had a moment in time with that song. Everything clicked, and without too much thought either. That's always a good.
Congratulations on bringing Ozzy to the world again. It's two years since we last heard from him.
Here's the thing with Ozzy, you know, there's a lot of press about his health, and this and that, and the fact of the matter is, I see the man all the time, and he's still as strong as an ox. He still is the iconic Ozzy Osbourne, and he can sing; man that guy can sing. So with the song and the video, I produced it, so I was just trying to show the world that this man still is the strong, iconic, heavy metal singer that he is, and we achieved that, because we didn't try too hard; we just let us do we let Ozzy do what he does.
With 1.8 million YouTube views at the time of this interview, you must be delighted.
Fantastic. Yeah, I mean, it's all a bit overwhelming to me, really. I'm used to, and I am fine with being the side guy. I play guitar for the icon, you know, so this is all a bit new, and I'm grateful. I'm humbled, definitely. You have to understand, every morning I wake up, and they're like; "you're number one most added at radio", and I don't really know what that means, but they all seem excited. You know, 1.8 million views, I'm like, that sounds like a big number, but I don't really know what it means. But everyone's smiling, so okay, that is a good thing.
What an incredible vocal that is. I can tell you, there's no studio trickery on that. Basically, I texted Corey; "will you sing a song on my album?" He went; "yes brother, send it over". That was the extent of the communication. I didn't tell him what to sing, or how to sing it; I just sent him the music, and what you hear on the record is what he did. He sang all the parts and he just went; "here you go!", and I listened to it was like; "oh my god, yeah!" I mean that guy is one of the greatest rock singers we've got.
You've also got Steve Vai on that track as well, and his melodies are amazing, and then that solo; you must have been smiling from ear to ear when you heard that.
I was, and there's a story behind that. If you listen to the rhythm guitars behind that, it's all The Wildhearts; it's me tipping my hat to Ginger. There are three key changes, and three rhythmic changes, and it's all these different chord structures. It's total Ginger Wildheart, and when I listened to that, I'm like; "I can't solo over that", I'm just not going to do it justice... but I know a man who can! And I called Steve, and again, I did not talk him through it; what you hear on that solo is exactly. Steve's interpretation. You give someone a rhythm track, and it's incredible where he took it in his head.
So you're tipping your hat to Ginger, and Devin Townsend was in The Wildhearts for a bit, and he worked with with Steve Vai on the Vai project; it's all very connected.
I believe that there is a joy in collaboration, but a lot of artists don't want to collaborate. A lot of artists don't feel comfortable collaborating. I'm not going to name names, but there are many people that only feel comfortable in their band singing their music, and that's fine; I'm just not that guy. My whole career has been, you know, if you look at Camp Freddy, and now Royal Machines, I stand on stage with some of the greatest singers and guitar players in the world. As far as I'm concerned, I want to learn from them. I shut up, I've watched, I observe. Collaboration will make you a better creative.
With 'Crack Cocaine' you said you wanted to channel the ultimate Ozzy riff from the mid-90s period.
Yeah, 'No More Tears', oh my God, what an amazing song that is. Me and Steve [Stevens] did not sit down and go; "we want to write an Ozzy song"; what we had in our hands were detuned guitars, right? That's the Ozzy's tuning, and by default, when you start playing on a detuned guitar, most of what comes out sounds like Ozzy. So after about ten minutes, we were crafting that riff, and obviously, Steve knows that Ozzy is my best friend, I know that Ozzy is my best friend, so we're like; "if we do this, and we do this, now we're getting close to a real Ozzy Osbourne riff". So then we said, "let's try and make this that ultimate '90s Ozzy riff", you know, one that never got written. Luckily, when you song write, sometimes you get a moment in time. A lot of times you don't, a lot of times you're hacking away and maybe you make a song out of it, maybe you don't, but we had a moment in time with that song. Everything clicked, and without too much thought either. That's always a good.
Congratulations on bringing Ozzy to the world again. It's two years since we last heard from him.
Here's the thing with Ozzy, you know, there's a lot of press about his health, and this and that, and the fact of the matter is, I see the man all the time, and he's still as strong as an ox. He still is the iconic Ozzy Osbourne, and he can sing; man that guy can sing. So with the song and the video, I produced it, so I was just trying to show the world that this man still is the strong, iconic, heavy metal singer that he is, and we achieved that, because we didn't try too hard; we just let us do we let Ozzy do what he does.
With 1.8 million YouTube views at the time of this interview, you must be delighted.
Fantastic. Yeah, I mean, it's all a bit overwhelming to me, really. I'm used to, and I am fine with being the side guy. I play guitar for the icon, you know, so this is all a bit new, and I'm grateful. I'm humbled, definitely. You have to understand, every morning I wake up, and they're like; "you're number one most added at radio", and I don't really know what that means, but they all seem excited. You know, 1.8 million views, I'm like, that sounds like a big number, but I don't really know what it means. But everyone's smiling, so okay, that is a good thing.
I wanted to talk about your work with Steve Stevens; you've been his partner in Billy Idol's band for a decade and a half.
So first of all, Steve is one of the most underrated guitar players of all time, and I don't say that lightly. I've played with all of them; Slash, Dave Navarro, Steve Vai, and everyone everyone is a huge talent, but what I've watched from Steve is, he doesn't play from his head, he plays from his heart, which means every night he'll do something different and he doesn't know what he's doing. I've said to him; "I like that little bit that you threw in Rebel Yell tonight", and he'll go; "I don't know what you're talking about", because he's not playing from his head. And the other thing is, when I joined the band 15 years ago, I was a decent rhythm player, but I'm proud to say that being in a band with someone of Steve's calibre has risen my bar. It's made me have to step up. I'm a good player now, and I never thought I'd be able to say that. That's only thanks to Steve Stevens saying to me; "hey, can you play this, but a third above?" And I'm like; "no", and he says; "yeah, you can. Just it goes like..." You know, he encouraged me to grow as a player, so I'm forever grateful to Steve.
You're right about the underrated thing; that riff from Rebel Yell where he's playing the bass line against that picked intro, for example
Let me tell you a story about that; in Royal Machines - Royal machines is our covers band that we do occasional gigs - and neither me nor Dave Navarro can play that. So when we do 'Rebel Yell', one of us plays the bass line, and one of us does the double finger tapping, because neither of us can play it. So it's such an underrated riff.
I'm so glad to hear you say that, because I can't bloody play it!
The other thing with Steve is, if you listen to songs like 'White Wedding' or 'Dancing With Myself', everyone thinks; "oh, yeah, it's three chords. I can play it". Not if you want to play it right. The amount of people that have jumped up with Billy Idol, guitar players; "Yeah, I know how ' Dancing With Myself' goes", and then halfway through the song, they're standing next to me going; "what's the next chord?"
Yeah, there's subtle inversions.
Or a D chord that doesn't appear anywhere else. Its clever writing.
Speaking of collaborating, and I really loved the last Billy Idol album 'Kings and Queens of the Underground' [2014], particularly the title track.
I'm proud to say that the title track was one of mine. I'm very proud of that album. Having Trevor Horn involved, and that whole process with that album was something that I was proud to do. It was a learning experience. I was in at the deep end; I was writing with two guys that have written eleven Top 10 hits, you know? But I thoroughly enjoyed it, and they were very encouraging. And I liked the album too. There's a song on there called 'Nothing to Fear', which I think is wonderful.
Billy Idol is an icon, but he doesn't put out new music a lot.
Which I like. What that means is, when Billy puts a new record out, people should listen. It's a record that he stands behind, and 'Kings and Queens' was definitely it. It was after a long break, so I was proud to be involved in that. And there's another thing; I get to play songs that I've written with Billy and Steve live. That's really nice, you know?
It's been a decade since 'Kings and Queens of the Underground; any chance of prodding Billy into making a new album?
What I would say is that there's no prodding is needed. Just hang out and be patient, because something is coming.
So first of all, Steve is one of the most underrated guitar players of all time, and I don't say that lightly. I've played with all of them; Slash, Dave Navarro, Steve Vai, and everyone everyone is a huge talent, but what I've watched from Steve is, he doesn't play from his head, he plays from his heart, which means every night he'll do something different and he doesn't know what he's doing. I've said to him; "I like that little bit that you threw in Rebel Yell tonight", and he'll go; "I don't know what you're talking about", because he's not playing from his head. And the other thing is, when I joined the band 15 years ago, I was a decent rhythm player, but I'm proud to say that being in a band with someone of Steve's calibre has risen my bar. It's made me have to step up. I'm a good player now, and I never thought I'd be able to say that. That's only thanks to Steve Stevens saying to me; "hey, can you play this, but a third above?" And I'm like; "no", and he says; "yeah, you can. Just it goes like..." You know, he encouraged me to grow as a player, so I'm forever grateful to Steve.
You're right about the underrated thing; that riff from Rebel Yell where he's playing the bass line against that picked intro, for example
Let me tell you a story about that; in Royal Machines - Royal machines is our covers band that we do occasional gigs - and neither me nor Dave Navarro can play that. So when we do 'Rebel Yell', one of us plays the bass line, and one of us does the double finger tapping, because neither of us can play it. So it's such an underrated riff.
I'm so glad to hear you say that, because I can't bloody play it!
The other thing with Steve is, if you listen to songs like 'White Wedding' or 'Dancing With Myself', everyone thinks; "oh, yeah, it's three chords. I can play it". Not if you want to play it right. The amount of people that have jumped up with Billy Idol, guitar players; "Yeah, I know how ' Dancing With Myself' goes", and then halfway through the song, they're standing next to me going; "what's the next chord?"
Yeah, there's subtle inversions.
Or a D chord that doesn't appear anywhere else. Its clever writing.
Speaking of collaborating, and I really loved the last Billy Idol album 'Kings and Queens of the Underground' [2014], particularly the title track.
I'm proud to say that the title track was one of mine. I'm very proud of that album. Having Trevor Horn involved, and that whole process with that album was something that I was proud to do. It was a learning experience. I was in at the deep end; I was writing with two guys that have written eleven Top 10 hits, you know? But I thoroughly enjoyed it, and they were very encouraging. And I liked the album too. There's a song on there called 'Nothing to Fear', which I think is wonderful.
Billy Idol is an icon, but he doesn't put out new music a lot.
Which I like. What that means is, when Billy puts a new record out, people should listen. It's a record that he stands behind, and 'Kings and Queens' was definitely it. It was after a long break, so I was proud to be involved in that. And there's another thing; I get to play songs that I've written with Billy and Steve live. That's really nice, you know?
It's been a decade since 'Kings and Queens of the Underground; any chance of prodding Billy into making a new album?
What I would say is that there's no prodding is needed. Just hang out and be patient, because something is coming.
Moving on, and you played bass with The Cult for the tour behind 'Beyond Good and Evil', which I think is such an underrated album.
Yes, a great album. I loved playing those songs. Yeah, the whole live touring behind that album, it was a heavy Cult set. It was really good. It was bass heavy, but I'm not a bass player. I see the guitar behind you, so you can play a little bit of guitar, which also means you can play a little bit of bass, and that was the situation you know? I'm not a bass player, however, when The Cult, when Billy Duffy calls you and says you should come and audition as the bass player; "what else am I doing right now? Of course I would!" I love The Cult, and, you know, the bass lines, it's not Jaco Pastorius; it's pretty simple. And it was an enjoyable process, which took me into arenas and stadiums for the first time, and that was a learning curve.
Matt Sorum was playing with the band again then, which brings things full circle back to Camp Freddy.
Yeah, Matt's a lovely guy. Camp Freddy changed to be Royal Machines because Matt went off to do his own version of it, which is great, and we've now got Josh Freese, who happens to be the Foo Fighters drummer! But yeah, Matt was in the Cult and it was a good time. It was a great few years.
Bringing things back to 'The Morrison Project', and have you any plans to do any shows to support the album?
The truthful answer is, no one wants to hear me sing 'Chasing Shadows', or 'Crack Cocaine', or even 'The Ayes Have It'. I can't sing those songs, and wouldn't sing those songs as well as the guests that did sing them. So no, I don't have any plans to tour it. However, if a very rich businessman out there is listening, I can call those people for a one-off gig. So playing it live is not out of the question, but touring it, it's impossible, not least because I'm about to go around the world with Billy yet again.
You're never stuck for work, so what else is coming up for you in your immediate future?
My art career is a big thing in my life. I've been blessed to have a fine art career that has actually gone into galleries, so I have a show coming up in New York in September. I have a lot of private clients that I've got to get around to painting their paintings. I also have two shows on Sirius radio, and I have something coming out with Ozzy that I can't talk about, on the net very soon, which takes up a lot of time. Your statement that I'm never stuck for work, you couldn't be more accurate, and that's fine. That's the way I like it!
Billy Morrison's 'The Morrison Project is released on 19th April 2024.
Yes, a great album. I loved playing those songs. Yeah, the whole live touring behind that album, it was a heavy Cult set. It was really good. It was bass heavy, but I'm not a bass player. I see the guitar behind you, so you can play a little bit of guitar, which also means you can play a little bit of bass, and that was the situation you know? I'm not a bass player, however, when The Cult, when Billy Duffy calls you and says you should come and audition as the bass player; "what else am I doing right now? Of course I would!" I love The Cult, and, you know, the bass lines, it's not Jaco Pastorius; it's pretty simple. And it was an enjoyable process, which took me into arenas and stadiums for the first time, and that was a learning curve.
Matt Sorum was playing with the band again then, which brings things full circle back to Camp Freddy.
Yeah, Matt's a lovely guy. Camp Freddy changed to be Royal Machines because Matt went off to do his own version of it, which is great, and we've now got Josh Freese, who happens to be the Foo Fighters drummer! But yeah, Matt was in the Cult and it was a good time. It was a great few years.
Bringing things back to 'The Morrison Project', and have you any plans to do any shows to support the album?
The truthful answer is, no one wants to hear me sing 'Chasing Shadows', or 'Crack Cocaine', or even 'The Ayes Have It'. I can't sing those songs, and wouldn't sing those songs as well as the guests that did sing them. So no, I don't have any plans to tour it. However, if a very rich businessman out there is listening, I can call those people for a one-off gig. So playing it live is not out of the question, but touring it, it's impossible, not least because I'm about to go around the world with Billy yet again.
You're never stuck for work, so what else is coming up for you in your immediate future?
My art career is a big thing in my life. I've been blessed to have a fine art career that has actually gone into galleries, so I have a show coming up in New York in September. I have a lot of private clients that I've got to get around to painting their paintings. I also have two shows on Sirius radio, and I have something coming out with Ozzy that I can't talk about, on the net very soon, which takes up a lot of time. Your statement that I'm never stuck for work, you couldn't be more accurate, and that's fine. That's the way I like it!
Billy Morrison's 'The Morrison Project is released on 19th April 2024.
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