Alice In Chains talk about how Elton John came to work on the title-track to their forthcoming new album, ‘Black Gives Way To Blue’.

Blabbermouth report that guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell has said: “We were thinking about adding piano to the track and a friend suggested we call Elton. I remember laughing and saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll get right on that.’ But I decided it was worth trying and wrote Elton an email explaining what that song means to us — that it’s a real, raw openhearted song for Layne. We sent him the track and got a call shortly after saying he thought it was beautiful and that he wanted to play on it. We were blown away. Elton John is a huge influence on me as a songwriter and having him on that song is an amazing honour for us.”

“I’ve long been an admirer of Jerry Cantrell and when he asked me to play on ‘Black Gives Way To Blue’, I was very flattered and couldn’t resist,” says John. “It was a great recording session with Alice In Chains for a beautiful song.”

“Elton was finishing his Red Piano run in Vegas, so we flew there and hung out for a few hours,” continues Cantrell. “Walking into a studio and seeing the sheet music for that song on Elton’s piano made it meaningful on so many different levels. The whole experience was pretty magical.”

Alice In Chains will release ‘Black Gives Way To Blue’ through EMI on September 28th.