In spite of a crazy-busy schedule over this last year (including working on a new album with The Empty Hearts and playing for such wonderful events as “The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ in Concert” and Wild Honey Orchestra’s benefit for the Autism Think Tank), Elliot has made time to collaborate on Perry Farrell’s first solo album in 18 years, Kind Heaven.
Who the heck is Perry Farrell, you might ask? To be honest, I didn’t recognize his name, either. But I quickly discovered that I was familiar with his vocals once I found out he was the frontman for the late 80s/early 90s alternative rock band Jane’s Addiction. The group, who found a flurry of explosive-but-relatively-short-lived mainstream attention with their 1990 hit, “Been Caught Stealing,” is regarded as one of the most highly influential acts in alternative music and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.
Interestingly, the band’s initial ‘farewell tour’ in 1991 was actually the very first Lollapalooza concert which, as we know, turned into an annual event and a highly popular festival in the rock world. Perry came up with the notion and continues to be closely involved in its production every year.
Anyway… back to this new album. Kind Heaven was released on June 7, 2019, though Perry spoke about it being in the works as early as 2014. Perry created this concept album as a soundtrack for his elaborate multi-media experience coming to Las Vegas in 2020, and apparently it is quite a wild audio encounter: Rolling Stone called it “a musical journey akin to Willie [sic] Wonka’s boat ride.” Haha!
All of the articles I’ve read about Kind Heaven include Elliot as a guest guitarist, but I haven’t been able to determine if he worked on the entire record or just on certain selections. It was produced by Toni Visconti and boasts other musical legends besides EE, including drummer Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters) and pianist Mike Garson (David Bowie).
Here is the first single released from the album; it contains some pretty rocking guitar jams. I wouldn’t be surprised if that IS our Elliot — we know he can play anything to perfection!
Kind Heaven can be streamed on iTunes and Spotify.
A big thank you to Andrew C for putting this on my radar with his YouTube comment!
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