The money from these bids is legitimately life saving! Dave Navarro and myself formed our charity, ABOVE GROUND, a few years ago after watching more than a few friends of ours suffer and die from mental health issues, depression, trauma and PTSD. We realized that we could use our voice to spread the message - “Its ok to ask for help” - both Dave and I have suffered from varying forms of PTSD, trauma, depression and addiction. But we have both been lucky enough to have help and support around us and we asked for it when we needed it. It’s a sign of strength, not weakness, to speak up and get the support we all need. So thank you, on behalf of Above Ground, for bidding on these items - Billy Morrison

The physical painting that is attached to this particular prize is extremely personal to me and represents a re-birth of sorts from a darker place. We are all the same inside, and that means we are all human, flawed, fallible but ultimately redeemable. I am proof that you can come back from the depths of hell and live a connected, valuable, and satisfying life with love for our fellows. This painting is 36” x 36” and speaks to the practice of being still, being present, being connected, with powers that are greater than ourselves. It resonates with me strongly and I hope it does the same for you - Billy Morrison

Drowning started life as a riff from the Jeordie / Erik sessions during Covid. When I revisited those sessions, I kept the loops and the tempo and re-did all the guitars and basses. The lyrics came very easily, it was one of the first songs I wrote once I knew I was putting together the album. And all my frustration, confusion and angst from the previous two years of lockdown, riots and financial unease came straight to the surface. I felt like I was “drowning’ in misinformation!

Steve (Stevens) and I write a lot of music together, seeing as we have been band mates for 16 years. So this was a song we were messing around with in drop tuning, kinda going for the classic heavy blues Ozzy riff that we all know and love. I played an early version of it to Ozzy and he ended up coming over to Steve’s and hanging out, while the three of us honed the music into what you hear on the record. 90% of the lyrics came from Ozzy just sitting with us, hunched over a notepad, or shouting lines at me while Steve played lead!! It was an incredible and very organic experience writing that song.

A very post-apocalyptic vision that I had, about literally driving off and leaving everything behind. All the post-pandemic bullshit was swirling around in my head, I felt confused and mis- informed. Everything seemed broken. And the fantasy was to walk away from it all and go find some spiritual solution in the desert somewhere. The music came from a super cool discordant riff that Erik threw at me during those Covid sessions.

When I was writing songs for the last couple of Ministry albums, I had a 16 bar riff that never got used. In the meantime, I had a whole song that I wanted Al to sing for The Morrison Project!! I sent it to him, and he agreed to sing it but after a couple of months, I called him and asked how he was doing on melody and lyrics, and he asked me to send it again because he was having some trouble with the MP3. I sent it again and the next minute he calls and says “oh shit….. I’ve been writing to the wrong riff…… I’ve had your Ministry riff on loop for two months and written a whole song around that!!” So, I grabbed that original 16 bar riff, turned it into a 4-minute song, and that’s what you hear on the album!!

As luck would have it, Dystopia is the song I originally sent Al, but when we realized he was doing a different track, I took this and made it my own!! The music was another basic demo from the Covid sessions that I redid and re-vamped. The song is an observation, not an opinion, about the world as I see it - everyone fighting so hard for that promised good life, that entitled place in privilege, that they become shallow and ignorant. Some of the racism, homophobia and political madness that I was watching on the news left me feeling like it was a disease of some kind.

One of my favorite songs on the record. The combination of nasty industrial sounds, EDM samples, and heavy power chords was exactly the vibe I wanted and when I heard what Corey did on the vocals, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up! It was so perfect. I am a huge fan of the British band, The Wildhearts and when it came to the solo section, I asked myself…..”what would Ginger do”? The answer was simple, a chunky, chord-filled riff, with three different key changes and some across-the-beat rhythms. And once that was down, there was only one man that I wanted to solo over all that….. Steve Vai! Luckily, Steve is a wonderful man, talented beyond human understanding, and said yes!!

The one with the strange time signature as I call it! I love the stripped-down nastiness of the verses, lots of weird, distorted noises going on and a very mechanical feel to it. I think the riff has a feeling of being on the edge, of dis-ease. It also has one of my favorite solos on this track. So, when I wrote the lyrics, I was thinking very much of how we are asked to make voting decisions, life choices and much more, based on a complete lack of facts! We seem to be (and so do some of our supposed leaders) very much like puppets on strings, led by a media that is often powered by unknown forces. That kind of thing usually ends in disaster.

It’s no secret that I have a huge love for old school hip hop. So, this song started out with the groove, the loop, the vibe if you like. I knew I wanted a super heavy chorus to bring it into the rock world, and once I had what I felt was a good musical base, I threw it to Darryl. Knowing a hip hop legend and Rock N Roll Hall of Fame turned out to be a huge asset because he sent me back some classic DMC flow. I had also recently seen Persia Numan perform with her dad, Gary, in LA and she did this crazy cool eastern melody thing with him. It was exactly what the chorus needed, and I asked her to do her thing. She killed it!

I would probably have to say this is my ode to the 90’s Brit sound. Mixing some Liam Gallagher style vocals with the jangle of Brit guitar bands like The Cult and The Mission, the end result felt perfect for me. The tambourine thing shines loud in this track which I love, and the sing- along chorus has always been something I love in a rock song. I also smile every time I hear the dual guitar “Iron Maiden harmony” solo in this song - I had an absolute blast working that out and playing it! The lyrics are consistent with the theme of the album, which is maybe “watch out, because we are headed for dark times as a planet”.

This was the last song to be put together, and obviously the album would have felt incomplete without having a track featuring Billy Idol. So I grabbed a very basic demo, took a riff or two and worked it up into a decent song. I sent it to Steve (Stevens) who made a few changes and suggestions and between us we ended up with this song. I love the space the verses have which showcase Billy’s iconic vocal sound. The talking segments also shine as far as I’m concerned - he has such a unique sounding voice. The lyrics came from a comment that Steve made to me about a certain smarmy, egotistical and dangerous politician who seems to have some kind of charm and people gravitate to him, no matter what his policies are ….. “Love me for my vanity, just call me Mr Dream”….. very dangerous.

By far the most personal song on the record. I wanted to write a specific love song for my girlfriend and dig deep inside myself. But I wanted to have a twist to the conventional idea of a love song. The love I am singing about feels like it transcends life itself, like even in death, it will always be there. It’s forever and more, and that is a huge comfort to me. The lyrics still hit me hard, even now I’ve heard it a thousand times. And I love the musical shock from the verses to the choruses, I really wanted to keep the music in the verses dark and moody and let my vocal sit on top. But again, I love a good heavy chorus, and I deliberately let the chorus hit from nowhere - unexpected and indicative of that love I’m singing about.

The perfect closer to the record and a song I am extremely proud of - I had a very slimmed down demo of the whole thing, and I knew that Linda would be amazing on this track. But she rarely does stuff like this. I sang an extremely bad version of my melody and lyric down on the demo, and just threw it out there on a wing and a prayer! To my complete surprise, she said that the song was really good, she didn’t want to change a thing, and that she would love to sing it! For a songwriter, having someone like Linda say that about something you’ve written is just about the best compliment you can get! The chords are very Bowie (and I know Linda and I love ourselves some Bowie!), so it came together easily. The lyrics talk about that relationship we’ve all had that seems so hard, and we question if we are trying to make something out of nothing, or if in reality, we are chasing shadows in the dark.