A snippet of a previously unreleased collaboration track between Slash and late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington has been made available for the first time.
The teaser of the track – entitled Crazy – has been uploaded by Big Chris Flores, a music producer who worked on Slash's 2010 self-titled debut solo album.
In a new interview with WHYS Radio, Flores reveals that Slash had contacted Bennington's widow Talinda about releasing the track back in 2019, but due to its demo state, it needed considerable work to make it release-ready.
“[Talinda] wanted to release it the way it was, and it was just terrible,” he says. “It was just me playing drums on the keyboard live while Slash was jamming. So we definitely couldn't [put] it out like that.
He continues: “I ended up reprogramming drums and playing bass, pretty much exactly the way Slash played it. We've been sitting on it now almost two years since I redid it because we've just been waiting for the right time.”
Crazy is reportedly due to be released in the not-too-distant future to benefit 320 Changes Direction, a mental health awareness charity founded by Talinda Bennington.
Initially written for Slash's debut album, Crazy was ultimately rerecorded under the title Doctor Alibi, with Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister replacing Bennington on vocals.
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“When I was doing my first solo record, I worked with a lot of different people, some of whom, for whatever reason, didn't end up on the record,” Slash said in a 2018 interview with Variety.
“One was with Chester. We did a song and Linkin Park at the time didn't allow it to happen, so I did it with Lemmy. The guy who engineered my demos sent it to me and I sent it to Chester's family.”
On the eventual release of the track in full, Slash added: “His family has got it, so it would be totally up to them. It was really good. He was awesome. It would be fine with me if they wanted to [release] it. Musically, it's basically the same as the Lemmy song, but the lyrics are really poignant.”
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Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.
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