SEVENDUST's LAJON WITHERSPOON Has 'About 20 Songs' For His Upcoming Debut Solo Album

In a new interview with Robert Cavuoto of Sonic Perspectives, SEVENDUST frontman Lajon Witherspoon offered an update on the songwriting and recording sessions for his long-in-the-works debut solo album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "In two weeks, I fly back to Nashville to kind of wrap up some stuff. I'm working with Andrew Baylis. He's actually one of Jelly Roll's writers, one of his main writers, and his whole team, Michael Whitworth and some other guys that I'm gonna go down there and probably do about three more songs. And I've also been working with the [songwriting/publishing collective] 4 Horsemen [Music], Blair Daly and Zac Maloy — Zac from THE NIXONS. So I probably have about 20 songs. And also with my buddy [Daniel] Sahaj [Ticotin] from RA. And it's all still in the making."

He continued: "I'm just kind of taking my time. There's a lot of label interest in my solo stuff, and it's really cool. And I'm just gonna see what happens after I go to this next run in Nashville. I have a couple of meetings with a few different labels. So it's exciting. But I'm really excited about the music and the avenue that this will take me down."

Back in May 2022, Lajon said that his upcoming solo album would contain "several songs" co-written with country superstar Jimmie Allen.

Speaking about the musical direction of his solo material, Lajon told the "Thunder Underground" podcast at the time: "It's got some heavy stuff, it's got some country twang but soulful. It's a [collection] of just everything that I like to do musically."

Regarding the possibility of doing some solo shows in support of his upcoming album, Lajon said: "Absolutely. I can't wait. People are already talking about it. They're already trying to book me. I was gonna go on a couple of… not ShipRocked solo. Another ship asked me to do my solo thing, and I was gonna go out there on the FOZZY boat too. So hopefully I'll be able to do some of my solo stuff."

In January 2021, Lajon released a solo single, a cover of British singer Jacob Banks's 2017 song "Chainsmoking".

In September 2020, Lajon told Talking Metal that working on his solo LP has been fun. "I've not had any pressure," he said. "It hasn't been something that, 'Oh, I have to do this.' This is something I've done on my own.

"I've been working with a very close friend of mine, Sahaj, [who] is the lead singer from the band RA, which I think a lot of people out there would know," he continued. "[He's] an incredible friend and artist, and we write well together."

Lajon stated about the sound of his solo album: "It's rock. It's a little bit of heavy, but I think it lends more towards a bluesy, soulful, more radio friendly… I'm not saying SEVENDUST isn't radio friendly, but I think this is more of a radio friendly… I don't know. It's a lot, a lot, a lot of melody. It's cool."

Witherspoon released the standalone solo single "Love Song" in 2017.

SEVENDUST will release its fourteenth studio album, "Truth Killer", on July 28 via the band's new label home, Napalm Records. The follow-up to 2020's "Blood & Stone" was once again tracked at Studio Barbarosa in Gotha, Florida with producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette, who has previously worked with ALTER BRIDGE and SLASH, among others.