BLACK STONE CHERRY To Finish Up New Album In December; Early 2023 Release Expected

On October 5, drummer John Fred Young of Kentucky rockers BLACK STONE CHERRY spoke to Loud TV prior to the band's concert at Le Trianon in Paris, France. Regarding the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for the follow-up to 2020's "The Human Condition" album, he said: "We started working on the new record this summer. And we've got about… I think there's about eight songs right now that we had done, and we're gonna go back in in December and finish up the rest. So [it's] a really, really cool situation.

"We've got our own theater back in Glasgow, Kentucky, where Ben [Wells, guitar] lives. We do our home shows there; we do it every two years at Christmas. So we recorded the drums in this big, beautiful theater. And they just sound incredible; even with me playing, they sound incredible. And we're going to my house to do vocals and guitars. So, [it's] really cool, man. I think people will really love the songs and the playing.

"We recorded 'The Human Condition' in 2020, and when we were doing that, everything with COVID, it was really starting to rise up," John added. "And we got done with that record two days before our state locked us down. So we were lucky to get that done. It's wild because we're just now playing that record here in Paris and throughout Europe. But I think probably next year, early next year, we'll have a new record out."

As for the musical and lyrical direction of the new BLACK STONE CHERRY material, John said: "The first seven or eight [songs] we had done are really… The lyrics on them are very heartfelt and great. The music is really heavy, but also there's the BLACK STONE CHERRY ballad or two, so… I can't give away too much [laughs], 'cause I don't even know what the other ones sound like yet, 'cause we haven't really finished those."

This past August, BLACK STONE CHERRY vocalist Chris Robertson told "Rock Of Nations With Dave Kinchen & Shane McEachern" about the band's upcoming LP: "We've got nine songs completely written and about seven more that we've gotta write lyrics and stuff to. But we've been at it, man. And it's good. It's heavy. It's melodic. I think it's gonna be a great record."

Regarding the lyrical inspiration for BLACK STONE CHERRY's new songs, Chris said: "It's crazy because the songs we write… Obviously we write songs that are fun — like 'Blame It On The Boom Boom' and 'White Trash Millionaire' — a lot of fun stuff, but we also write some more serious songs.

"It's different, man," he continued. "We've been writing and stuff. And it's crazy. For me right now, the stuff that's kind of coming out is a lot related to my dad passing, a lot of understanding how to deal with this loss and grief and just learning to live through it.

"The serious songs we write are stuff that we've either witnessed or we've lived or whatever," Chris explained. "Other than a song like 'Rain Wizard' or some of the stuff we wrote that was more folklory, everything we've written is something we've lived. So there's a hell of a lot in the well now. I went a really long way of saying that, but the well is very deep now of things to write about."

BLACK STONE CHERRY's seventh studio album, "The Human Condition", was made available in October 2020 via Mascot Records/Mascot Label Group.

In June 2021, BLACK STONE CHERRY announced the departure of bassist Jon Lawhon. He has since been replaced on the road by Steve Jewell Jr., the guitarist from the Glasgow, Kentucky band OTIS.

The digital-only release of an expanded edition of "The Human Condition" was made available in August 2021.