Slash + Myles Kennedy Both Got COVID While Making New Conspirators Album
Four musicians — Slash, Myles Kennedy and two of their bandmates — each contracted COVID-19 while recording 4.
That's the fourth solo effort from Slash to feature lead singer Kennedy and the band the Conspirators. It's due out next year; lead single "The River Is Rising" emerged last month.
Slash, the guitar icon and Guns N' Roses member, talked about the COVID diagnoses while discussing the imminent new album in a recent interview with Germany's Radio Regenbogen.
Watch the video down toward the bottom of this post.
Slash explained, "The funniest story about this record was the COVID story, because we took a tour bus to Nashville to keep ourselves safe — to get there and not travel commercially." [via Blabbermouth]
However, after they "went and recorded the whole record," the guitarist said, he "got a phone call from Myles in the studio when I was about to do overdubs, and he goes, 'Man, I tested positive.' And subsequently, two of the other guys tested positive, so they all had to go into quarantine."
The album wasn't quite finished at that point, though. Percussion and background vocals still needed be recorded. But due to the COVID situation, work came to a brief pause.
Slash continued, "We mixed what we had, which was a lot. And then we recorded the background vocals in the guest house of the house that we were all quarantined in. And then those guys got better. I tested positive finally. And so I had to quarantine. I just got vaccinated, so I only had to quarantine for a few days."
He added, "And so I came out, and then we did the percussion and mixed [the rest of] the record and drove home. So that was the funny experience about this particular record, was everybody having to navigate the whole COVID experience."
Other rock musicians who have tested positive for COVID-19 this year include Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), Chad Gray (Mudvayne), Sean Killian (Vio-Lence), Sebastian Bach (ex-Skid Row), Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley (KISS), Jonathan Davis, Munky and Ray Luzier (Korn), and members of Tesla and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Metal singer Eric Wagner died in August after being hospitalized with COVID pneumonia.
4 arrives on Feb. 11, 2022. Pre-order it here. Slash, Kennedy and the Conspirators will tour North America surrounding the album's release.