Lynyrd Skynyrd Recording With Metal Guitarist, Plot New Album

Lynyrd Skynyrd are reportedly eyeing an early-2009 release for their next studio album, says guitarist Rickey Medlocke. The band has spent the last year recording with a surprising choice — Marilyn Manson/Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 — and hope to spend the latter portion of 2008 in the studio to finish recording the new album, the band's first since 2003's maligned Vicious Cycle. "We've been doing quite a bit of writing with John 5," Medlocke said. "While everybody thought, 'My god, you are going to write with this guy? How is that ever going to work?' But this guy came in and is really multi-talented in all genres." Two of the songs expected to make the track list are the dark "Floyd" and the uptempo "Bang, Bang." The band is currently on the road sharing co-headlining duties with Kid Rock, who appeared on the band's last album.

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Song Stories

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

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