Slash, before Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators became his solo band, was working on his first solo album, recruiting a number of name musicians to lend vocals to the record. As it turned out, one such vocalist who ended up not being on the record was late Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington. Now, 13 years later, the song Bennington worked on with Slash has been revealed exclusively through the Appetite for Distortion podcast. It’s titled “Crazy.”
Why Was “Crazy” Never Released?
As tends to happen when artists are on different record labels, occasionally collaborations run into some red tape. In this case, as revealed by producer Big Chris Flores in the episode, Slash had called Bennington to his studio to work on a demo of the song “Crazy.” But after the fact, Bennington learned that he would be unable to give permission for its usage as the record label had balked at having him on a song that might compete for attention as Linkin Park were releasing a new album. Slash’s solo record came out in March of 2010, while Linkin Park’s A Thousand Suns later arrived in September.
“We had to scrap it and shelve that and it kind of got lost in the matrix all those years,” revealed Flores. In fact, the demo lived on his computer for years with not even a proper song title.
Why Does “Crazy” Sound a Little Familiar?
While Bennington’s demo with Slash had to be shelved, Slash’s guitar work was put to use in another form. The song eventually morphed into “Doctor Alibi,” a track recorded with Lemmy Kilmister on the 2010 Slash album. The lyrics and song title changed by the time the album was released, but there’s a definite guitar similarity between the two tracks.
READ MORE: Why Does Slash Always Wear a Top Hat?
What Happened to “Crazy” and When Did It Resurface?
Flores revealed that the demo with Bennington had mostly been forgotten about as Slash had moved forward with the music for his solo set. But years later, the producer was clearing out some space when he came across a file titled “Demo Fast No. 15.” Unsure of what it was, he revealed it was the Bennington demo from their early album sessions.
After sharing it with Slash, they agreed to reach out to Bennington’s widow Talinda about the possibility of doing something with the song. She initially asked for it to be released in its original form, but after some encouragement from Flores, they were able to add live drums and bass to the song. Flores reached out to drummer Matt Starr, who then recommended King’s X‘s Dug Pinnick to lay down the bass that now exists on the track.
Now with permission granted, the song was released today (Nov. 16) exclusively as part of the Appetite for Distortion podcast that includes an interview with Big Chris Flores.
You can check out the interview in full below, while the song itself can be heard at the 1:11:11 mark of the player below. And you can see how the song morphed by checking out what became “Doctor Alibi” with Lemmy Kilmister in the player below that.
Slash, Chester Bennington, Dug Pinnick + Matt Starr, “Crazy” Premieres on the Appetite for Distortion Podcast
Slash Featuring Lemmy Kilmister, “Doctor Alibi”
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Gallery Credit: By Selena Fragassi
