Late Foo Fighters vocalist/drummer Taylor Hawkins can be heard guesting on the newly released cover of Johnny Winter‘s 1970 track “Guess I’ll Go Away“. Hawkins took on lead vocal duties on the track, which was recorded with Winter‘s brother Edgar and guitarist Doug Rappaport. The song has been posthumously released as part of Edgar‘s tribute to his late sibling Johnny, “Brother Johnny“, which came out today, April 15th.
Edgar spoke on enlisting Hawkins for the cover:
“[‘Guess I’ll Go Away‘] stands out in my mind as the highest energy and hardest rocking song on the entire album. I have always considered it stylistically the most uncharacteristically advanced song Johnny ever wrote, almost a precursor of heavy metal.
Because of this unusual quality we wanted a younger, more energetic, modern approach to the vocal. Our engineer, mixer, and producer (Ross Hogarth) had worked extensively with Taylor and they were very close friends. When Ross suggested Taylor (being such a huge Foo Fighters fan) I said WOW—how perfect. and I know Doug will be absolutely thrilled.
I had only just met Taylor, and barely got to know him, but I was so impressed by his sincerity, positive energy, and pure enthusiasm. He had a unique spontaneous style different from anyone I’ve ever worked with before. I can be very opinionated—but as soon as heard what he was doing, I knew it was best to step back, stay out of the way, and let him do his thing. That session was an experience I will never forget.
When I tried to open a business discussion, he simply would not hear of it. He said—I don’t want ANYTHING for doing this, I just want’a get out there and Rock. And Rock HE DID! I don’t know if it was out of respect for Johnny, a desire to help me in what I was doing, compassion for the nature of the project, or his friendship with Ross. Most probably all these things—but whatever it was, he gave it His ALL!”
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