Slash bonded with Brian Johnson over their shared love of Howlin’ Wolf.
The Guns N’ Roses rocker enlisted stars including Steven Tyler, Iggy Pop and Demi Lovato to make guest appearances on his new blues album 'Orgy Of The Damned’ and he's revealed it was easy to persuade Brian Johnson to sing on a cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s 'Killing Floor' because they are both huge fans of the late singer/guitarist.
During an appearance on the 'Audacy’s Check In' podcast, Slash explained: "I had the song and I was trying to think who would be great to do it. And Brian came to mind.
"And I’ve known Brian for a pretty long time now. And he just has that great kind of grit to his voice. And I called him up and it turns out that he’s a huge ... Howlin’ Wolf protégé.
"And also, he was telling me that he’s doing something at present where he’s putting together sort of a blues-orchestra thing. Don’t quote me on that, but something to that [effect]. Anyway, and so he was excited to do that particular song anyway."
Slash went on to add: "That’s the key thing that you’re looking for, is that when you call any of these great artists up and you have a cover song that you want to attack and if they would be willing to participate, that the song speaks to them, that it has meaning to them too, not just me.
"And that’s how it was with Brian. He was, like, ‘Oh ... great. Yeah, let’s do this'."
The track also features Aerosmith star Tyler playing the harmonica and Slash said getting him to play on the song was "very spontaneous".
He said: "[Tyler] came in to do the harmonica or he just happened to have a harmonica with him. I can’t remember, but I played him the track. It was, like, ‘This is great.'
"So it was very spontaneous. It was very just sort of inspired in the moment, which is a great thing to be able to capture, especially nowadays because people just, by and large, don’t make records like that now.
"Everything is very well thought out and cultivated and homogenized and produced, and this was just very, very off the cuff."
'Orgy Of The Damned’ also features star turns from ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Queen collaborator Paul Rodgers, blues star Gary Clark Jr and The Black Crowes' Chris Robinson.
Tracks featured on the album include covers of 'Oh Well' by Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Wonder's 'Living for the City' as well as 'Papa Was a Rolling Stone', 'Hoochie Coochie Man' and 'Born Under a Bad Sign'.
'Orgy of the Damned' is released on May 17.
