Neal Schon leads the special guests featured on former Journey and Santana singer Gregg Rolie's first new full-length studio album in 18 years "Sonic Ranch".
Rolie will be releasing the new album on October 11th and Schon appears on two tracks, "Breaking My Heart" and "Lift Me Up". Steve Lukather also guests on two songs, "They Want It All" and "Give Me Tomorrow".
Gregg is backed on the album by another Santana album Michael Shrieve on drums, and Alphonso Johnson played bass. Rolie had this to say, "I'm pretty fortunate to have such good friends who are also some of the best musicians on earth.
"These songs mean a lot to me, and I'm very proud to be putting them out. To have such amazing players helping me to make them a reality is an amazing thing. The album wouldn't have turned out so well without them."
He also explained the long delay in putting out a new record, "I didn't plan on taking so long to record a new album. The simple fact is, I've been working. I've been writing songs over the years, and we recorded half of them by 2013.
"Then I got busy touring with Ringo, and I took part in the Santana reunion, 'Santana IV'. Everything took time. Finally, when 'Santana IV' was done, I could get back to finishing the record."
Rolie is giving fans an early taste with a stream of the first single "What About Love". He had this to say about the track, "The song inspired by Ringo Starr and his message of peace and love.
"I had started writing it, and I would and play around with it at soundchecks with Ringo. It sounded really good, so I took it home, found the bassline, and [Gregg's son] Sean produced and engineered it.
"There's 15 lead vocals on it. Sean played the guitar solo and said, 'It's a little out of tune.' I said, 'It's perfectly out of tune. Let's go!' He's such a great player." Listen to the track here.
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