Courtney Taylor, The Dandy Warhols‘ lead singer and guitarist, stopped by KGNU to talk about their new single with Slash, the new album Rockmaker, and their concert at the Gothic Theatre on March 18th.

Steve Roby: Thanks for joining us, Courtney.

Courtney Taylor: Great, thanks for having me.

Roby: 2024 looks like an exciting year for the Dandy Warhols. Your new single features Slash is out now, the new album Rockmaker drops on March 15th, and as I mentioned, your spring tour will stop by the Gothic Theater on March 18th. Let’s start with the new single, “I’d Like To Help You With Your Problem.” How did the collaboration with Slash come about, and what was it like working with him?

Taylor: Well, you don’t really work with people so much anymore, particularly not for just a one-off like this. You send it to them. They ask you what kind of thing you’re thinking, and then they go into their studio and record and send it back.  you can remix it and do whatever you want with it.

But the reason we got him for that particular track was we wanted to go with an early 1970 psych rock, Vietnam vet, kind of LSD rock trip [sound]. After a short discussion, I came to the realization that that’s, he’s kind of the greatest, maybe ever at that. So, our manager got a hold of his manager, sent the song to him, and said, “Can you run this by Slash and see if he wants to play on it?”

Slash got back to us, like, within the hour. It was absolutely No nerve-wracking, no hoping, no waiting… none of that kind of thing. It was great! He said, “Yes, absolutely! What kind of thing you’re thinking?” We said, “Wah-wah pedal.” It’s such a fantastic performance! It’s just so much deeper and more beautiful, and he’s a great artist!

It’s clearly the voice of Slash on there, but it’s just saying things that, well, not, not to belabor the metaphor, but it is very recognizably him, but I’ve never heard that kind of thing from him. So, there’s a lot of Middle Eastern scales and things like that. It’s stunning how deeply beautiful it is…