The plight of the West Memphis Three continues to draw the support of the music industry. Henry Rollins has enlisted Ryan Adams, Iggy Pop, Slipknot's Corey Taylor, Queens of the Stone Age's Nick Oliveri, Rancid's Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederikson, and others to perform covers of Black Flag songs for Rise Above, a compilation to benefit the WM3, due October 8th on Sanctuary Records. The album, which also features Cedric Bixler Zavala (formerly of At the Drive-In), Hank Williams III, Dean Ween, Ice T and others, was performed with guitarist Jim Wilson, drummer Jason MacKenroth and bassist Marcus Blake of the Rollins Band backing the vocalists.

The West Memphis Three -- Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin -- were accused, convicted and imprisoned in the 1993 killings of three eight-year-old boys in Robin Hood Hills, Arkansas, near West Memphis. The story was captured in the documentary Paridise Lost, which cast light upon a clumsy police investigation and a trial mired in a hysteria over Satanic cults.

"I could send a check to aid in the boys' defense," Rollins said. "That's nice, but it's pretty quiet and I thought what this situation needed was volume and motion. I tried to think of things to do, and it always came back to a benefit record. Benefit records are well meant but anonymous and boring to me. Great idea, but I'm too busy, I thought. Then I thought about the ages of the WM3, when they went into prison and how old they are now. Mid-teens to mid-twenties. Those were some great years for me. I spent them all over the world. They spent theirs in small rooms with no natural light for something they didn't do. All of a sudden, my schedule opened up and I got busy."

Rise Above track listing:

"Rise Above," Chuck D, Henry Rollins
"Nervous Breakdown," Keith Morris
"Fix Me," Iggy Pop
"American Waste," Neil Fallon of Clutch
"I've Had It," Cedric Bixler Zavala of the Mars Volta
"I've Heard It Before," Jeff Moreira of Poison the Well
"Room 13," Corey Taylor
"Wasted," Exene Cervenka
"Jealous Again," Nick Oliveri
"TV Party," Henry Rollins
"No Values," Hank III
"Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie," Dean Ween
"Depression," Casey Chaos
"Six Pack," Mike Patton
"Police Story," Ice T
"Revenge," Tom Araya of Slayer
"Thirsty and Miserable," Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead
"What I See," Chuck Dukowski
"No More," Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederikson of Rancid
"Black Coffee," Henry Rollins
"Slip It In," Henry Rollins and Inger Lorre
"Annihilate This Week," Henry Rollins and Kira Roessler
"My War," Henry Rollins
"Nervous Breakdown," Ryan Adams

ANDREW DANSBY
(July 24, 2002)