Chuck Shute Podcast

Billy Morrison (Billy Idol guitarist) on His #1 Hit with Ozzy Osbourne, Sobriety & More!

September 05, 2024 • Billy Morrison • Season 5 • Episode 453

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Billy Morrison is a musician and artist who currently plays guitar with Billy Idol.  He recently released a new solo record called "The Morrison Project."  In this episode he discussed his journey from drug addiction to achieving success with the number one hit "Crack Cocaine." He emphasized the importance of making honest music and the strategic inclusion of guest stars like Billy Idol and Corey Taylor. Morrison recounted his friendship with Ozzy Osbourne, formed at a Christmas party. He highlighted his involvement with the charity Above Ground and his commitment to helping others. Morrison also shared his experiences with sobriety, the impact of the pandemic, and his ongoing art and music projects, including an upcoming video for "Incite the Watch" featuring Steve Vai & Corey Taylor.

00:00 - Intro
00:15 - Becoming a Raider Fan
01:45 - Doing Drugs
03:25 - Having a #1 Song & Guests on Record
07:47 - Becoming Friends with Ozzy
10:45 - Meeting Celebrities  
11:45 - Fan of Artists & Doing Paintings
13:08 - Sobriety, Art & Meaning
15:45 - New Solo Songs & Artistic Meaning
17:00 - It's Come to This & Pandemic
19:55 - Gratitude, Acceptance, Slumps & Helping Others
31:10 - New Song "Drowning" & Album Credits
36:15 - Corey Taylor & "Incite the Watch"
41:00 - Happier As Older & Learning Lessons Sooner
45:12 - Outro

Billy Morrison website:
https://billymorrison.com/

Chuck Shute link tree:
https://linktr.ee/chuck_shute

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Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!

Chuck Shute:

What, what jersey is that? Is that Raiders, or is that? Uh, oh, yeah,

Billy Morrison:

Devonta Adams,

Chuck Shute:

okay? I didn't know.

Billy Morrison:

I don't think he's gonna be Raiders much longer.

Chuck Shute:

Oh, no. What happened? Well,

Billy Morrison:

he's not happy, but, I mean, I don't know about can track some money, but he's not happy.

Chuck Shute:

Okay?

Billy Morrison:

They don't they don't even have a quarterback. I mean, I don't know what's gonna happen on some it's just ridiculous. You

Chuck Shute:

don't like minshu. I'm a coug fan, so I love minshu. I mean, I know he's not like Patrick mahomes, but

Billy Morrison:

we will see. I thought Garoppolo would have been great, and he's off, and he's gone, and it's just, it's a mess, it's a mess, but that's what you get for supporting the Raiders.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. I mean, they used to be good in the 80s. They were really fun. That's

Billy Morrison:

when I started following them, when I was shooting heroin in a basement in in London, and the only thing that was on TV at three o'clock in the morning was NFL from the States.

Chuck Shute:

Oh, I didn't know they played it over there. And, no, no,

Billy Morrison:

no, they no, there was, there was one TV station that broadcast all night. It's called channel four, okay? And they would just broadcast whatever they could get hold of. And remember, that was NFL, because of the time difference. There would be NFL playing, you know, and it would be three o'clock in the morning in England, and they would be showing it live. And so I just watched and became a Raiders fan.

Chuck Shute:

So wait, which drug were you taking at this time? All of them. Well, because when you take heroin, what do you do when you take heroin? Don't you just, like, lay in a bed and just like, fall asleep, basically. Or is

Billy Morrison:

it like the interview, or are we just chitchat?

Chuck Shute:

This is fascinating stuff, right? Isn't it? Okay?

Billy Morrison:

Well, what you what, what a professional does when he takes heroin, he's put some cocaine in it so that you can stay awake and enjoy the heroin,

Chuck Shute:

right? Like a speedball. That's what John Belushi loved, right? And Chris Farley, what

Billy Morrison:

John Belushi died from? I think, yeah, yeah. That's people die from speedballs. But there you go. But

Chuck Shute:

you, you did them, and you never did, you ever even have an OD or anything?

Billy Morrison:

Yeah, many times, many times.

Chuck Shute:

And you just were able to because, like, I was just watching Breaking Bad. I don't know if you've ever

Billy Morrison:

seen that show, great show, but it's Christian. It's different. Well, no, but they

Chuck Shute:

they do heroin. Him and Jesse and his girlfriend do heroin. And she's like, make sure you sleep on your side, because if you lay on your back, you can throw up and choke on your own vomit. Is that pretty accurate? Is that like a thing that junkies do? It's

Billy Morrison:

a thing that junkies do and die from? Yeah, wow,

Chuck Shute:

it's crazy. So that show's pretty accurate, then

Billy Morrison:

that show was very accurate. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was never fully in the crystal meth world. I mean, I've done crystal meth, but it's just glorified all of it is glorified speed. So, you know? I mean, I know the effects of it. I get it. I wasn't cooking up meth in a trailer in the desert. I was doing different kinds of shit stuff, you know, right?

Chuck Shute:

So you, you went from that and living under a bridge and homeless, and I think you said robbing people, you went from all that crazy shit to like now having is it number was, Did it hit number one? The song crack cocaine, or is it number two?

Billy Morrison:

No, it hit number one.

Chuck Shute:

Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah. So you got the number one song. So how do you do that? I

Billy Morrison:

had no idea. I mean, I'm as surprised as you are. Man, well, no, you know, you know, the truthful answer is, I would say you make a record that is just for you, just for you. Like, honestly, that album, the Morrison project, came out a few months ago. I mean, we're just touching the surface. We've only just started releasing things that aren't crack cocaine, because crack cocaine just took off and exploded. That whole album was primarily so that I could drive around in my car listening to to an album that I'd made that I really love every track, no filler, every single track. And I think if you make a record that that is that honest. And also when you don't know you're making a record, it helps you be that honest. Because I was just making music in covid, if someone had said, I'm going to sign you to a record deal and you are going to write 12 songs, I would have been like, oh shit. I need consistency. I need singles. You think differently when you're making an album. I didn't know I was making an album, and I think that's a good starting point for going for success is just make an album that you like, right?

Chuck Shute:

Right, but I think to get to number one, I feel like one thing that you did that was that, I think is super smart, that I've tried to explain to people, because I've had people on the show that release a solo album or a project, and they don't have guest stars. And I say, I tell them, why don't you have some guests on this album that would get more exposure? And it's a great song, it's a great album, but not as many people here, I think you, you, I don't know if it's an ego thing. With these people, they just say, No, I don't want, I want to, like, stand on my own. And you said that, like the music is bigger than the the artists. Like, I don't, yeah,

Billy Morrison:

and I, I've been, I don't. I'm trying not to use the word ego, because obviously I have an ego. I'm in a business that requires that you have one. But I think the muse, let's put it this way, the music was bigger than my desire to sing everything. I proved that I can sing. Well, kind of I can do? Angry boy, you know, quite well. Uh, disenfranchised youth. I except not youthful. You know, I can do that shit. But there were some, some moments where I realized the music was was of much more importance than whether I sang it or not, that that's really it. I did not set it's quite frustrating, because I'd really didn't set out to put a bunch of famous people on a record, it's not what I did. I wrote a bunch of music. I sang the ones that I felt spoke to me that the lyrics came easily, that I melody came easily, and then I hit upon stuff that clearly would be better if one of my friends sang it like, just like a movie. It's a hip hop song. You know, as much as I love hip hop and as much as I've done a few collaborations with hip hop guys, one that's going to be coming out in October, that you don't know about yet, but I'm excited. I'm not, I'm not a rapper, you know, I'll dabble with it. And if I'm working with a big hip hop act, I'll try and, you know, hey, I'll give me, give me eight lines, you know, but clearly, that song was meant to be wrapped on and not up by me. And the fact of the matter is, being in the business all this time. I do have some people in my rolodex that I call friends. I didn't go through managers. I called up D, actually, I texted D, and all I said was, listen, dude, I don't really know what I'm doing, because at that point, there wasn't a record. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I've got this great hip hop song. Would you rap on it? And he went send it to me. That happened with all of the songs?

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, I love it. I listened to I was trying to find out. I just wanted to know the story with Ozzy. Like, how did you become friends with him? And so I finally figured it out, can you tell my audience? Because I love this story. You met him at a Christmas party, and the story is just, it's so real, like, it really exposes. It's not like this. Like glamorous rock star story. It's like this. These are two real people that that got a connection. There

Billy Morrison:

was nothing glamorous about it. We I was at Sharon and one of Sharon and Ozzy's houses at a Christmas party, which, you know, Sharon throws amazing parties. So we're talking 500 people, none of which I knew. I was invited by a mutual friend of Jax, and I find myself in the Osborne's kitchen with all these big shots and record company people and rock stars and actors, and I am so overwhelmed with social anxiety because I don't do well in in rooms like that, that I opened this side door. It's, I mean, I can, it's on the Osborne's. The room is on that TV show, the Osborne's. It's a door off the kitchen off that old house, and the lights were off, and it was really dim. And I could, and I shut the door to to get away from this, what I perceived as huge pressure to be on and smile and happy, and I just not that guy a lot of the time. And Ozzy was in there doing exactly the same thing in his own house, hiding from the party, socially anxious. And he said, Hello, I'm Ozzy. And that was it. We sat down, you know, we were in there a couple of hours talking about Cadbury's chocolate from England. They, you know, the old country and the Sex Pistols and anything else that Monty Python. I remember we spoke about Monty Python. We just bonded because we're both English, you know. Yeah, that

Chuck Shute:

makes sense. And it's just a coincidence that you happen to open the door and he happened to be in there by himself, like you think.

Billy Morrison:

Well, knowing him now, that's not a coincidence. Now, I know him very well. He's going to be the one hiding somewhere in a party. He's not particularly into the big schmooze thing, either.

Chuck Shute:

So is it Sharon that wants to have the big parties then, or, um, I

Billy Morrison:

mean, I think. Think, I don't think it's a case of wanting to have big parties at some point. When you live in this town, at that level, you're expected to have parties, you know, a release party or a Christmas party, or like people do from time to time, and it was just the Osborne's was massive on MTV, or just kicking off. And, you know, they were faces about town. And the expectation was Sharon Osborne throws a great Christmas party, which, by the way, she does. There were real reindeer wandering around Beverly Hills and real snow in 80 degree heat. So, you know, she does throw a good party this show.

Chuck Shute:

Wow. And it sounds like there was a lot of famous people there. Do you get starstruck still when you see all these celebrities?

Billy Morrison:

Depends who it is. I don't think there's a music person I would be starstruck with. No, I've, I've met and worked with most and the ones that I haven't met or worked with, I would not be starstruck. I'd just I'd just be full of respect, you know, like ice cube. I'm a huge I've been saying in every interview, I'm a huge hip hop fan. Never met Ice Cube. Think he's one of the greatest voices in hip hop, and a great businessman and funny in the movies. So if I met him, I would love to meet ice cube, but not from a star point of view. I'd probably want to say, let's do something. Yeah, let's, let's collaborate. Let's do something like, I'm full of ideas, dude, and my career shows that, you know, no absolutely,

Chuck Shute:

especially with this album, it's

Billy Morrison:

amazing. There's some artists that I would be starstruck with if I if I met him, you know, yeah, because

Chuck Shute:

you do art on the side. Well, I guess not on the side. That's like your main thing. That's your main so what artists are you big fan of?

Billy Morrison:

Most of them are dead. Unfortunately, in the art world, the blue chip art world, death seems to make you rise to the top, you know, right? I mean, I'm a, I'm a Damian Hurst fan more about the business than the actual art, but I'm fascinated by Damien. Obviously Banksy. My house is full of Banksy. Having answered your question. I'm thinking most of the artists that I respect, I've also met and worked with, like Shepard Fairey and risk and plastic Jesus, they're all my friends now, so maybe I just live a charmed life.

Chuck Shute:

Do you like Salvador Dali? I think he's one of my favorites. I

Billy Morrison:

do like Dali. I think it's a little bit overrated in in some respects, the the famous pieces, fantastic, fantastic. I wouldn't have Dali in my house just because the esthetic of my house is different. I mean, you can see, that's a Basquiat, that's a war hole. It's, I'm more, uh, contemporary, modern art, but Dali's amazing. I mean, you can't deny the talent and the craziness.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, what do you think makes good art in terms of music or paintings or whatever? Like, how did people because sometimes it's drugs, right? Isn't that like sometimes creative door, um,

Billy Morrison:

I'll say this about that statement about drugs. Ozzy didn't have a real number one album until he got clean. So, you know, and with Aerosmith, right? Isn't

Chuck Shute:

it like, I mean, some people prefer the more fucked up years, but commercially, they didn't become big until they got sober,

Billy Morrison:

correct? And, you know, I would say that the days of people thinking it's cool to throw TV sets out the window. It's really gone. I mean, for starters, we all wised up and realized that we have to pay for those TVs. So it really is. It's not 1987 now, and we've had the heroin years, and the ones that lived through it, think about the ones that didn't live through it. You know, I think it's just

Chuck Shute:

not crazy to think of the ones that didn't What if they did get like, what if Cobain and laden Staley and those 90s guys? What if they still were making music and they got sober like, it'd be interesting to hear what they would do. So

Billy Morrison:

I think, I think they would have the trajectory of anyone else that had drug problems and cleaned up, myself included. I think that if you push through that, you find that creativity knows no bounds. And I think to answer your original question, what makes art worth doing is having something worth saying in the first place? I mean, even the Sex Pistols, you know, if you break, Never Mind the Bollocks down to very well documented that it's my favorite band and my favorite album. But I would say to you that those songs are not the most complicated songs ever written. It's not, it's not Tom Sawyer by rush, but what makes that album stand on its own two feet? 50 years later, is what they were saying, how important it was at that time for that band to exist. For the 21 months that they existed, they changed the face of music. Because what they said was important. I think that what Warhol was saying was very important about consumerism, mass consumerism. I think what Banksy says about the US as a race and and our our greed is is very important. I think it's about what you have to say, not how you've been educated to say it. Yeah,

Chuck Shute:

so with that said, what with your new album? Because, like, obviously the big single, crack cocaine, is not about crack cocaine. It's about it's a metaphor about a girl that you think about all the time. Thank you for

Billy Morrison:

understanding that drove me and Aussie mad when radio stations are like, we can't play this. This is about drugs. Well, first of all, you ended up playing it anyway radio stations, and you got us to number one. So thank you for that. And secondly, you know, Chuck, thank you for understanding that.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, so I mean, but these are the these songs have. They all have a deeper meaning, at least to you, and hopefully that comes across to the audience.

Billy Morrison:

Yes, I also agree that art is subjective, both visual and, you know, music, a lot of art, I don't want to explain one of my paintings. I will if I'm asked, because I'd be rude if I didn't. But it's much better. All the art in my house, I've not asked the artist once what it's about. I think it's more important that it speaks to me in a certain way. So the songs on my album, of course, they mean a lot to me. There's a lot of quite personal stuff. We are the dead is hugely personal to me. You know, drowning and it's come to this. I mean, it's come to this is pretty straightforward. It was just a statement on how I think everyone on the planet was feeling having been locked up for 18 months with a bunch of lies coming through the TV. And I'm not being political, I'm actually being apolitical. The lies that we were getting fed were so well documented. You know, you need to take, you need to have a vaccine. Oh, not this vaccine. No, this one. Actually, we made a mistake. The vaccine isn't working. Oh, yes, it is. But you need two of them. But you've got to wear a mask. No, sorry, not a mask. I mean, come on, that's what we were, and that was the world I was living in when I wrote the Morrison project,

Chuck Shute:

right? That was a weird time. Yeah, I feel like there's gonna make a Netflix documentary about it at some point, right? I mean, there's been nothing so far. There's been no like analysis of that time like we've kind of it also tells you the rug

Billy Morrison:

that also tells you something pandemic. What pandemic? I don't know what you're talking about.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, it was traumatic to me, and so, like, for me, and actually, I was able to sit at home and do podcasts via zoom like this, and it was like, I didn't suffer. I mean, obviously some people got very sick, some people died. Some people have family members that got sick and they lost their job. Some people lost their business. I mean, it really affected some people horribly, yeah.

Billy Morrison:

I mean, all our rogue I'm in a fortunate position that, first of all, clearly, people still buy art when there's a global pandemic. I didn't know that, but people do still buy paintings, maybe more time to shop, I guess. Well, there was a lot of that going on. People online going, Oh, how much is that? Okay, great. Ship it to me, you know. But, but on a, on a wider scale than that, I'm fortunate enough to be able to go through something like that and not be affected, really, even on an emotional level, I'm I'm pretty much an isolationist. So I kind of loved sitting indoors, ordering food, Postmates and just not dealing with the human race, you know. But our crew, our Billy idols, road crew, they exist from gig to gig, from tour to tour. It went away for nearly two years those poor guys suffered, suffered, you know? So, yeah, I think that it was a very interesting time to live through. I don't regret anything in my life. So I don't regret that we all had to live through it. I think it was an exercise in humanity, patience, acceptance. You know that you want to learn about acceptance. Live through a global pandemic is nothing you can do.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, I mean, I think that you've obviously with the sobriety that's that's taught you. Lot of those life skills that you've had to deal with things without drugs and alcohol, you've just had to learn how to like. I think you've mentioned gratitude is something that you try to practice every day, and so those kinds of life skills you kind of are prepared for something like this, right?

Billy Morrison:

I think it helps. I don't think that just because I got so I mean, I've been sober 29 years, and it doesn't mean that I'm an angel. I am an absolute idiot a lot of the time, and I still have a lot to learn. What it does is it does teach you acceptance. It does teach you that you're not in control a lot of the time. I love when people think they're in control, really, if you're in control, stop the pandemic. Make that stop. You know you are absolutely not in control, and so therefore you learn some acceptance. It doesn't mean that I don't still have a lot to work on as a human being.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. Well, so for the people that went through the pandemic or just like, are just going in a slump in general. Like, because you, I'm sure that you're throughout your career, you've had ups and downs. Like, how do you get past those downs? Like, those slumps, like, how do you do you not get discouraged at times and just think of giving up? That's

Billy Morrison:

a great question. I mean, everyone, everyone goes through that, whether you have a look at some of the interviews with people like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie. Angelina Jolie just gave a fantastic interview, I forget, with whom about parts of her career. You know, Pamela Anderson just gave another great interview about the the ups and downs. Everyone goes through them. I think that self destruction, for someone like me, self destruction is a natural go to that I have learnt doesn't get me anywhere. So that's the difference. A lot of my friends are not here anymore because going through one of those slumps killed them, through self destruction, through self medication and numbing the pain of the trauma they're going through, and it didn't work. They messed it up, they died. So I go through those kinds of ups and downs, just like anyone else. I just have learned not to self medicate through them, which makes it painful sometimes.

Chuck Shute:

So you don't self medicate. So do you just kind of realize, like I'm in a slump right now. Things are bad, but they're going to get better. Or do you start like working harder?

Billy Morrison:

I believe, I believe in the power of communication. So I think that there for me, I have certain people in my life that I can talk to on a deeper level and discuss the ups and downs. Let's take a down. You know, I'm going through a down. There will be people that I go and talk it through with, and I also am a workaholic. I will double down and wake up every morning and go, What can I do to push through this? How can I find the strength to push through this? And finally, and I think it should be the first thing, it's primary. This is such a sobriety thing to say, but it's very true when things feel like that, helping another person get you out of your head and stops you obsessing about, see, I believe that the universe has a plan for me. It has a plan for everyone. I don't think there's a neon sign on the 405 that is saying, Billy, you need to do this. You need to buy this, and you like that doesn't work like that, but if we are in tune, there are some signs that I'm on the right path. One of them for me is I'm not dead. That's a good sign for me, left to my own devices, I should have been dead 30 years ago, right? So that's left to my own devices. I end up in an alleyway in downtown Los Angeles in a really bad way. So if you if you believe that, then you believe that there is a great a plan afoot, and if you can trust that plan, why not just go help some other people until such times as that plan because, because it's not in my time, this plan will happen in its own time, and I have loads of examples of that in my life where I chose to just not. Worry about it and get on with helping other people and that and 10 other things all fell into place, and life was even better than I thought it was going to be. Wow.

Chuck Shute:

So what's an example of you helping somebody else? Because obviously you, I mean, you could help so many people with music. I mean, there's probably a million people that would love to have your input or help on a music thing, right? Or is it something totally non music?

Billy Morrison:

Oh, it's all kinds of things. I mean, Chuck, I do above ground with Dave Navarro. That's charity, a big charity that helps people that suffer from trauma, you know, PTSD, depression, suicide, awareness. And I'm active in that charity, and that is music events or donating my paintings or my time. But then there's, I mean, I will sit, you'll see me in a coffee shop, sitting talking to someone that was close to blowing their brains out, and I'm sitting there talking to them and trying to share my story with them and tell them that I was the same, and I've come very close to doing that exact same thing. And they they then asked that question, well, how did you get? How did you get from that to this? Boom, the light bulbs going on now I can help them. So there's all kinds of ways you can help another person.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, no, that's really good to hear. It's really inspiring. I'd love to hear those kinds of things, because I always think the same thing. I'm always like, Okay, where's my purpose? Why are we here? Like, and it's usually to help people in some way, whether it be through doing an interview like this, that might inspire somebody, or making music or making art, that's better for the world. That's That's

Billy Morrison:

why I do these things. I'm not doing these things so I can google my own name and then watch the interviews that I know I've already done, because there's hundreds of them. Yeah, I don't do them to boost my Google reputation in my own head. I do them because the amount of people that have come up to me and gone, oh, my God, I saw you on the SO and SO podcast, you blew my mind. My son is going through that or, or my husband committed suicide, like the amount of our Dave and I with above ground. Our Our motto is It's okay to ask for help. That's our slogan. It's okay to ask for help. The more people in a in a whatever position I have that actively talk with no boundaries about, yeah, I shot heroin for 14 years and I nearly died. Ask me whatever you want. There's I'm not, I'm not shy of that, because I may save a life that I don't even know. Some guy in Australia might be, might be watching this podcast and go, I love that album. I had no idea this guy was was down like that. If he can do it, I don't know. That's my hope. Now.

Chuck Shute:

I love that. That's great because it is an issue that Americans and people all over the world are suffering with, and especially here in America with the fentanyl stuff, it just drives me nuts. I just wish there was a and I think, because I think people are lost, they they choose that path, and like, I would rather have people not even go down that path at all, especially with the fentanyl. I mean, I just don't see that, like, the point of doing that drug. But I know that when people are just down a dark path and it's just like one step next and then somehow they're smoking, it's

Billy Morrison:

a hard one, and something that we're not going to fix in, you know, a half hour podcast, but I've been in DC talking to high up members of the FBI about how, how on the front lines they are and what kind of solutions are needed. I've read white papers that are being put together about the opioid crisis, and it isn't something where there's a simple solution, but there's definitely no solution if we all stop talking about it, right?

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, is there any books or movies or anything that inspired that helped inspire you to get sober, to help you inspire to

Billy Morrison:

No, I think what inspired me to get sober is the fact that I was actually going to die, and no one would have given a shit, so I didn't need much inspiration. I was homeless, unloved, unlovable, and it was very bad. So the books and the movies, I mean,

Chuck Shute:

you know, song or whatever, I mean, like with music,

Billy Morrison:

oh, I think, I think that it all becomes very real world. And there are resources out there. You know, Google is your friend. There are many resources available now. We still need more, but there are resources for whatever you're going through. The main step is not to be scaled. Cared to ask for that help, the stigma surrounding I need help needs to go and then we will save more lives because the resources are there these days.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that's something that people don't understand. They think, oh, we need more resources. Like, I think we got the resources people want. We gotta guide,

Billy Morrison:

we've got to guide the people to want to ask for that, because you can't, you can't help someone that doesn't want helping. But there are many people who would want to be helped if they thought for one moment it was okay to go, can I? Can I maybe get out of this life? That's what you need. Yeah. And

Chuck Shute:

then you could do amazing things like what you're doing, touring with Billy Idol and Ozzy and Corey Taylor and all this amazing stuff. Yeah, thank

Billy Morrison:

you very cool. Well,

Chuck Shute:

you got to get going. I think it's been at 30 minutes.

Billy Morrison:

I'm good. Okay, you

Chuck Shute:

want to keep talking,

Billy Morrison:

then chuck whatever you want. Well, yeah, because I'm an interviewer's dream. I'll let you know when I'm done.

Chuck Shute:

Okay, cool, yeah, no, just see it. Because, I mean, there's so many other songs on the record that I we can talk about, what's that? Talk through them, yeah? Well, drowning was your favorite, right? Yeah, that's a cool video, too. You had the cockroaches on you. You had to rent these cockroaches like, that's my worst nightmare. You have any

Billy Morrison:

I so the concept of the video was pretty much most of the video concepts come from me sitting around with my girlfriend, just shooting the shit. And she'll go, what if? And I'll go, that's a great idea. And then we make it happen. And, you know, that concept was, it was interesting. First of all, I had to convince the producers that it was okay to strap 20 pounds of weight to my legs and I was going to fall into a swimming pool and drown, you know?

Chuck Shute:

And you almost did, right?

Billy Morrison:

I did almost drown? Yeah, I had a scuba diver at the bottom of the pool with a spare tank and the reg,

Chuck Shute:

let's just or something.

Billy Morrison:

Let's just say that I didn't drown and all is well. But yeah, I would say health and safety would have had a nightmare with me if they'd have been there. And then I said, I want, I want massive cockroaches running all over my face. And they, to their credit, found out you can rent cockroaches. I did not know this. That

Chuck Shute:

sounds like I was in the bathroom of the day at my pool, and I'm going to the bathroom, I look over there's a giant cockroach, and I, like, screamed and ran out of there,

Billy Morrison:

like, catch that little sucker you've now got a side hustle renting cockroaches.

Chuck Shute:

What is it about? And it's an irrational fear. I really because the cockroach is not going to hurt me, but they just gross me out.

Billy Morrison:

They will. They're very dirty things, and I'm pretty sure the ones that we what I don't know, pretty sure I have no idea what they could have caught them the morning of the video shoot downtown. I don't know where they came from. I'm just an idiot, but I let them listen. The video looks great, does it not?

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, it's awesome. Great song. Who does the bass line in that is that you playing bass? Because I love the bass lines the beginning, you know, it's really, yeah, it started like

Billy Morrison:

Jordy from Manson's band wrote a bass line and it was, it was a in that key, in that tempo, but when I revisited this song, because it was just like sketches of songs, I completely rewrote. I kept the tempo and I kept the vibe, but I rewrote the bass line and played it myself, and it's, yeah, it's a storm in bass line. I love it,

Chuck Shute:

yeah. I love the there's definitely a feel and a sound to the whole album, but then there's, like, a variety too. Like, it's nothing against AC, DC. I always use them an example, like, how a lot of their songs sound very similar. Like, that's not the case here. I mean, there's like, like, the Al Jorgensen is more industrial, and then, you know, the Linda Perry is more would you say it's kind of like a ballad, almost like,

Billy Morrison:

yeah, that's a ballad. I mean, again, this goes back to what we started on, which is, had I known I was making a record, it would not have come out like this, because who puts a hip hop song, a metal song, a punk song and a piano ballad on on on an album together? It's just not done. But I had the luxury of what I don't care. What do I care? I'm not going to no one's going to hear these. When I started doing it, no one's going to hear these. By the time I realized people were going to hear these, it was a bit too late. These are the 12 songs I've got. I stand by them. It's all it's all over the place. But yet it's not. There's a great arc, and I cannot take credit for. That I lucked out. I really lucked out with the sequencing, with the with the Barry pointer, who mixed the record, killed it. That gives it a sense of consistency there. And at the end of the day, Chuck, it is what it is. It's what I wrote, it's what I put out. And I'm super proud of it really bad, and you

Chuck Shute:

wrote 90% of the music, and you play guitar on it, so there's that that's consistent throughout as well. Yeah.

Billy Morrison:

So I think that's a good point. I think that even though, you know, even though Corey Taylor is singing inside the watch, it's over music that I wrote, and all the gets, all the rhythm guitars, they're all me. Seven or eight of the solos are me. Most of the bass is me. So I don't really, I don't know that that's, that is what a solo album is. It's my vision, and it's my songwriting. And then I chose people to sprinkle their fairy dust on the top, which they did. And they all killed it. I can't thank them all enough. Yeah,

Chuck Shute:

well, the Corey Taylor, I don't know that story. How did you meet him? Because that's, I mean, I get the Billy Idol. Some of these like, make sense, obviously, you know Billy Idol because in his band. But Corey Taylor, I mean, I wouldn't think Billy Idol toured with slip. Don't

Billy Morrison:

remember when I first met Cory. I know that if you go on YouTube, I was the Reverend in his first marriage. It's, I don't really have much clear memories of it, but it's on YouTube there. I'm like, I'm I'm invested in the universal, whatever that church is that you can buy for 20 bucks online. And so I'm a minister in that church. And so I, I mean, that's going back decades. I married him in Vegas in some ceremony, and then we played, and he's been performing with my band, Royal machines, for years, you know, as a guest, and I just, we just hit it off. He's a great guy, one of the greatest singers. I mean, listen to the vocal on inside the watch. And we've actually, I don't know when this goes out, Chuck, when does this go out?

Chuck Shute:

Um, maybe today, maybe Friday. What is

Billy Morrison:

currently? You see me posting these weird pictures on Instagram and all my social media of this mannequin. I'm going to give you an exclusive Chuck. Why not? So on the ninth of of September, oh 909, we're going to release a video for inside the watch, and it will officially go to Radio as the new active rock single, the follow up to crack cocaine. And you will see, when you see the video, that it's an animated video, very much in this style of Scooby Doo and the villains are those mannequin characters that we drove around LA and positioned this mannequin in all kinds of weird and wonderful places, took a photograph as the build up to this thing, and that's that comes out next week. And insight the watch is to me with Steve Vai doing the solo. It's one of the greatest songs on the album and and apparently my label agree, because here we come again with another huge, active rock single, I I guess,

Chuck Shute:

yeah. I mean, that's an all star lineup with, yeah, with him and Steve, I that's and I heard you said that they sent their work and you didn't really have to change anything. And I've heard the same thing from like Dave Fortman, uh, producer, you know, with evidence Evanescence and Slipknot. He said Corey Taylor, it's like, he does it in one take, and it's like, He's a producer, and he's like, I can't there's nothing to change on that. Just do it as it is. It's the easiest in the world.

Billy Morrison:

It's absolute. And that song that I sent Corey, if you take the vocals off it, it's not easy. You can't tell where the verses are, where the choruses are. It's a it's a complex musical song. And I just sent him the music, and he, what you hear on the record is what he sent me back. It's absolutely and the same with Steve VI, but you know, I'm a guitar player. What am I going to say to Steve Vai, no, no, no, it doesn't go like that. You know what Steve sent me was absolutely perfect. And we laid it all in the track and went like that, and there's the track,

Chuck Shute:

yeah, I like, just, I've always been a Steve I fan, ever since that movie. Just, I'm sure you've seen crossroads, yeah, that is, like, one of the coolest movie scenes I've, like, ever where he just, like, just, he's like, the devil, and he's playing against Ralph Macchio. Just sent

Billy Morrison:

him. He's given me a few guitars over the years. Yes, and I just texted him a video a couple of weeks ago. I there's one song we just finished touring Canada, and there's one song that I use one of his guitars in. So at the end of that song, it's a crazy flurry of madness, and I recreated the Crossroads scene, where he picks the guitar up, and he's doing this with the Whammy bars. And I had my tech video that, and I sent it to Steve who cracked up laughing, cracked up laughing.

Chuck Shute:

Oh, that is so cool. Yeah. You live like an amazing life, like just hanging out with all these guys touring and doing and then you got that other, the all star, the Royal machines thing, like you're doing, like you're having, like, a fun light you're getting to paint art for and make money off of it. I mean, that's like, really amazing. Well,

Billy Morrison:

this, this part of my life. Yes, don't forget, I spent 15 years near to death and all kinds of pain that goes along with that. So this part of my life, yeah? And I would attribute that to hard work,

Chuck Shute:

yeah, okay, yeah,

Billy Morrison:

I am living a good, a good part of my life. Let's see what happens in the next 15 years. Isn't

Chuck Shute:

it interesting, though, because people always think like getting older is like, sad and suppressing. I feel like I'm 46 and I feel like I'm happier now than I was in my 20s. In my 20s, I know what the fuck I was doing with life. It was like, stressful is terrible. Now I feel like, oh, okay, like, I kind of get this thing called life. I'm way happier,

Billy Morrison:

yes and no, in so many areas, you're absolutely right. In a couple of areas. I wish I'd learned some lessons sooner. You know, I mean, definitely financial I'm lucky. I'm okay now, but it took a lot of hard work, considering I cleaned up when I was 29 and I was not financially stable, you know, where most of my peers were. Most of my peers had had a gold record or two by the time they were 29 when gold records meant something, you know,

Chuck Shute:

right? Didn't you get a big contract though, when you were young? I

Billy Morrison:

mean, it was still not young. I it was when I cleaned up. Is when I got that. And also it didn't help that that record label, Geffen, went under while I was signed to it. So that obviously wasn't the time the universe that wasn't the plan now, now is the time the universe decided.

Chuck Shute:

But you could have, at that point the band, you know, Geffen, goes under, you could have said, You know what, I gave it my all, and you could have stopped and given up on music, and you never would have had this number one record and all this other stuff.

Billy Morrison:

I could have done that, yeah, crazy, but I didn't. And you know, there's other areas of life where you I wish I'd have learned lessons sooner. Relationships, there's all kinds of areas where I'm still a work in progress, but on the whole, I am enjoying, definitely enjoying my 50s.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, that's great to hear. No, I agree. I mean, definitely there's things you wish you knew, all the stuff that when you're I mean, what? It's like, the song, you know, you wish I knew what I knew now when I was younger, whatever. Fuck that up, probably. But, yeah, I mean exactly. It's the same thing that, you know, if you knew this stuff when you're 25 life would have been a lot easier,

Billy Morrison:

yeah, but then, then life would have been probably different. I think, I think some of the for whatever integrity I do have that comes from having lived that life and gotten out of it without dying. So I think that integrity and that work ethic wouldn't have been there if I'd have known all this shit I knew when I was when I was 16, you know,

Chuck Shute:

right? You kind of had to learn the hard way, I

Billy Morrison:

guess, yeah, for me, I did. I mean, that's, that's definitely I couldn't have written the Morrison project had I not lived that life, right?

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. And I'm sure some of the paintings come from some of the dark times as well, right?

Billy Morrison:

Correct. You just can't do that with any truth. You can do it. But again, I would like to think the album's success and the success of my art is because there's a hell of a lot of truth in the pain I sing about, or the anger that I sing about, or the paintings that come pouring out of me. You've got to have lived a life in order to have that experience.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, the album that is out now sounds like the new videos coming out next week with Corey Taylor. Can't wait for that. Your art is available. There's, I'll put the link in the show notes to both your art projects and the music and all that stuff. And people can check it all

Billy Morrison:

out. Hard to find Google. Lose your friend. Yeah, yeah.

Chuck Shute:

It's just make it easier for people just thinking, just click it in the show notes. Rick there. So awesome. Thank you so much. Billy. Appreciate it. Thank

Billy Morrison:

you, Chuck. Thank you very much.

Chuck Shute:

I'll be in touch. Bye, bye. You

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