After paying tribute to Chris Cornell at the ‘I Am The Highway’ show with Audioslave in January in Los Angeles, Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler soon plans to honor Scott Weiland with a cover of Velvet Revolver’s “Slither” with Matt Sorum in their new band Deadland Ritual. The band also features singer Franky Perez and Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens.
Butler told Billboard, “We’re thinking about doing seven original songs, which we’ve done up to now, unless we write more between now and May. Probably three or four Sabbath songs. ‘N.I.B.’, because that’s what I’m associated with particularly; the bass intro and all that kind of stuff. And some stuff that Sabbath didn’t do, like ‘Symptom Of the Universe’. Steve loves that one. And Franky likes ‘Heaven And Hell’ and we might do one or two others; see which ones work out best in rehearsals. But more obscure Sabbath songs, rather than ‘Iron Man’ or ‘Paranoid’, that’s been done a million times. A couple Velvet Revolver. ‘Slither’ definitely, I’m not sure bout the second one, and I think we’re going to do ‘Rebel Yell’, Billy Idol! [Laughs] I have to learn them all between now and May.”
He added about Deadland Ritual’s future, “We’re just going to see how it goes,” he said. “We’ve written seven songs up to now, so we have to get those recorded. We’ve got quite a few record companies interested. But at first, it was ‘have a jam, and let’s do some festivals.’ But it seems to have gone beyond that, people are taking it more seriously now. So if things work out with the gigs that we do we’ll carry on. I’m excited about it. I really like the music we’re doing, not restricted to any kind of formula. And as I say, each track stands on its own, different in its own way. I’m really looking forward looking to it.”
