DAVID HASSELHOFF's New Album To Include Collaborations With AL JOURGENSEN, TRACII GUNS And STEVE STEVENS

August 16, 2019

MINISTRY frontman Al Jourgensen, L.A. GUNS guitarist Tracii Guns and BILLY IDOL axeman Steve Stevens are among the guest musicians who appear on "Open Your Eyes", the new album from David Hasselhoff.

Due on September 27, the disc includes 67-year-old "Baywatch" and "Knight Rider" star's collaboration with Jourgensen on a cover of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline". also featured are Hasselhoff's takes on THE LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH's "Open Your Eyes", MODERN ENGLISH's "I Melt With You", ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN's "Lips Like Sugar" and David Bowie's "Heroes" (with verses sung in German).

"Open Your Eyes" track listing:

01. Open Your Eyes (feat. James Williamson)
02. Head On (feat. Elliot Easton)
03. I Melt With You (feat. Steve Stevens)
04. Lips Like Sugar (feat. A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS)
05. Heroes (feat. Tyler Bates)
06. Here I Go Again (feat. Tracii Guns)
07. Jump In My Car (feat. Todd Rundgren)
08. Rhinestone Cowboy (feat. Charlie Daniels)
09. If You Could Read My Mind (feat. Ava Cherry)
10. Sugar, Sugar (feat. Steve Cropper)
11. Mit 66 Jahren (feat. Patrick Moraz [Cd Only]
12. Sweet Caroline (feat. MINISTRY)
13. That's Life

Earlier in the year, Hasselhoff told the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur that he was recording "a couple of heavy metal songs" for his new studio album. He said: "Why not? Because I can. Because I want to."

Last fall, Jourgensen revealed that he teamed up with DJ Swamp to remix Hasselhoff's cover of "Sweet Caroline". "It was the most surreal project I've ever been involved with," Jourgensen told Billboard. "I didn't even have to take acid, and I felt like I was trippin' balls. David Hasselhoff has a new album coming out, some originals and some covers, and for whatever reason — and this is the part that still perplexes me since I haven't met David Hasselhoff yet — he decided I would be the perfect person to mix this. [Laughs] So it's, like, 'I'm game! I'll take the challenge. This could be cool.' And sure enough, man, as soon as I heard it, I felt like I was on some of Timothy Leary's best MDMA I've ever been on."

Hasselhoff has a successful singing career in Germany and neighboring Austria, where, in 1985, his debut album, "Night Rocker", unexpectedly shot to No. 1 on the local chart. His second and third albums, "Lovin' Feelings" and "Looking For Freedom", eventually topped out at No. 5 on the album chart in West Germany, as well as being immensely popular in East Germany. The single "Looking For Freedom" was a hit, reaching No. 1 on the German chart, and was seen by many Germans on both sides of the Iron Curtain as a makeshift pro-unity song, according to The Post.

Even though Hasselhoff is of German descent — there's a village named Hasselhof outside Frankfurt — it wasn't his ethnic connection that resonated. "I think Germans rather like the American-ness about him," Hanna Pilarczyk, a culture writer for Der Spiegel, told The Hollywood Reporter. "Also, his music is very simple and it's something to clap along to. Germans like to clap along to very straightforward rhythms."

Back in 2014, Hasselhoff was invited to perform at the Austrian hard rock and heavy metal festival Nova Rock, where he appeared after IRON MAIDEN. He told Kurier.at at the time that he was a heavy metal fan. "I like IRON MAIDEN and METALLICA," he said. "That's the kind of music I like to hear."

Find more on Ministry
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).