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Gorillaz Attempt to Draft Bobby Womack For Upcoming Album

April 9, 2009 3:52 PM ET

On "Gorillaz On My Mind," Gorillaz's contribution to the Blade 2 soundtrack, guest rapper Redman dropped the lines "Soul survivor, I write with Bobby Womack hands." On Gorillaz's in-the-works third album, Womack himself may make an appearance.

"They called me from London and said, 'Man, we want to do something with you,' " recent Hall of Fame inductee Womack tells Rolling Stone. The unfinished track arrived at his California home just a few days ago. "In the days when I would get loaded, I would have thought this was great," says Womack. "Now that I'm straight, I think I'm too square to know where they're at. I kept listening and thought, 'Damn, why do they want me?' It's all new to me. The only thing that convinced me was my daughter said, 'Dad, you got to do this. They're awesome.' I said, 'You're hip to them?'

Luckily, Womack's daughter was able to explain that the Gorillaz are a rotating cast of musicians, rather than a wild band of primates. "I thought she was talking about a real gorilla. I said, 'I worked with a lot of people, but I never worked with a gorilla.' " After it was all sorted out, Womack called the Gorillaz and said he was down to participate. "I just called them back and said, 'I want to be a help and bring something to the table. I gotta be honest though, I don't know why you want me.' They said, 'It's about a plastic ocean. Just imagine yourself in a plastic ocean. Just get on there. Do what you wanna do. It'll work out.' It should be interesting."

Related Stories:

Metallica, Run-DMC, Jeff Beck Join the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Wild Induction Ceremony
1973 Feature: Bobby Womack Says He Could Be a Superstar

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