Glenn Danzig Pays Tribute to Black Sabbath, ZZ Top and More on New Covers Album

Glenn Danzig fans may find a few surprises on his upcoming covers album.

As Danzig tells Rolling Stone, he decided to call the record Skeletons — as in "skeletons in your closet" — and made room in the track listing for tributes to a fairly diverse array of influences that includes Black Sabbath, ZZ Top and the Everly Brothers.

Danzig's pick for a Sabbath cover, "N.I.B.," was an easy choice. "It's one of the Sabbath songs I really liked, and the first Sabbath record is pretty groundbreaking," he told RS. "I just dropped it down to a half beat, pulled all the bass out of the beginning, and it's just drums, guitar and vocals. When the chorus comes in, it's just big old bass chords and church bells."

His cover of ZZ Top's hit ballad "Rough Boy" might seem like an odder fit, but Danzig says he didn't follow the synthy template set by the band, instead opting to turn it into a "heavy '50s song." "I made it the way Billy Gibbons did it," he said of his version, which features Prong's Tommy Victor. "It kind of stops and the chorus never finishes, so I made it a flowing song. I hope he's not too upset."

Danzig says he's also working on an EP of Elvis Presley covers as well as a new record from his band Danzig, but he's committed to getting the full-length covers project out first. "I had to put it out now," he explained, "or else there would be so many songs I'd want to do that I wouldn't be able to do it."

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