Corey Taylor Shares New Acoustic Version Of Black Eyes Blue

After recording a bunch of acoustic versions of songs on his new album CMFT, Corey Taylor has shared the first of the batch: a stripped-back take on Black Eyes Blue.

Speaking to Kerrang! about the recording process for his debut solo record, the Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman previously teased that, as well as the 13 songs that make up CMFT, there are “six covers and six acoustic versions” to come, too – Black Eyes Blue clearly being one of them.

“We did 25 songs in two-and-a-half weeks,” he revealed of the studio process. “We did all 13 songs that are on the album, and then for B-side stuff we did six covers and six acoustic versions of the songs we had just recorded. So it was really just… that easy. We just went in and just did it. There was no debate, we just knew what we wanted to do and just did it.”

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He continued: “There were long days, but it wasn’t exhausting at all. We would go in probably around 11 or noon, and we would all sit and have coffee for about an hour and just talk shit. Then it would take about 30 minutes to dial in the sound that we were thinking, and for some of us it was choosing the right guitar, choosing the right amp… stuff like that. And then we would just get on with it, you know? We would play the song twice to kind of knock the rust off of it, and then we would track three or four times, depending on how tricky it was. And then we’d go in, listen to everything and make very minor touch-ups – I mean, for the most part, what you’re hearing is a live pass from each of us. It might not have been the same pass at the same time, but it was all live, and it all lined up so well because we were so in tune with what we were playing.

“Plus, we were watching each other, so we could really vibe off each other. And then once we got a good balance, and if there was anything we needed to thicken we’d do it, and then I’d go in and sing. We were literally finishing songs by the end of the day, right down to harmonies, guitar solos, percussion if it needed it… I mean, it was uncanny.”

Stay tuned for more acoustic tracks and cover material from Corey to come, then. But in the meantime, here's Black Eyes Blue – and grab your copy of CMFT here if you haven't already done so.

Read this: Album review: Corey Taylor – CMFT