Ben Harper Gets Heavy With Relentless7 on "White Lies for Dark Times"

Ben Harper has plugged his guitar back in and cranked up the amp for his new album White Lies For Dark Times, an 11-song set soaked with hard rock and the deep Delta blues. "It's a sound I've been looking for and reaching for in my mind," Harper tells Rolling Stone (a full in the studio report can be found in our current issue). "We've taken turns kicking each others' asses in the most gracious fashion, pushing this into new places." Which means the album is more Cream than Jack Johnson, more "Faded" than "Steal My Kisses."

Why the louder sound? Harper's ninth studio album will be his first with his new backing band Relentless7, three Austin-based musicians who initially worked with Harper on 2006's Both Sides of the Gun. It also marks the first time Harper has recorded an album without his Innocent Criminals since 2003's Diamonds on the Inside. Even though he's fully committed to Relentless7, and will bring the band along for his slot at Bonnaroo, Harper still plans to keep the Innocent Criminals together, much like how Neil Young and Crazy Horse often took different paths but somehow always found their way back together.

Rolling Stone caught Harper and Relentless7 at Los Angeles' Spaceland in December 2008, where the band played White Lies tracks like the tough, howling "Number With No Name" and the brooding 12-string acoustic ballad "Skin Thin," plus a cover of the Queen/David Bowie collaboration "Under Pressure." The Smoking Section also talked with Harper about the R7 in the days following the group's slot on the Rock the Vote! Tour.

Related Stories:

• Ben Harper Introduces New Blues-Rock Band Relentless7
• Smoking Section Exclusive: Ben Harper's New Band
• Ben Harper Turns Guitar Troubles Into Triumph at All Points West

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

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