The all-star collective King Ultramega have unveiled a cover of Chris Cornell’s “Dead Wishes” featuring Brann Dailor of Mastodon on lead vocals. The outfit previously covered “Rusty Cage” with Alice in Chains singer William Duvall.
King Ultramega is a Christ Cornell tribute project assembled by producer Mark Menghi, who also plays bass on the material, to honor his life, legacy and body of work, including Soundgarden, Audioslave and his solo projects. Cornell, who passed away in 2017, was recently named as one of Consequence‘s 100 best vocalists of all time.
The song “Dead Wishes” is taken from Cornell’s fourth solo album, Higher Truth, released in 2015. The cover also includes Angel Vivaldi on all guitars, Frank Mitaritonna on keyboards, and Kenny Aronoff on drums, with Menghi not just playing bass but also arranging the orchestral elements.
The single, like the previous ones in the series, raises funds for MusiCares, a charity devoted to mental health services, addiction recovery support, and emergency assistance to members of the musical community.
Menghi said of the song, “I would constantly listen to the original version in moments of clarity, times of reflection, sitting in a sauna post-work out and/or cool down periods, etc. any time I needed to wind down or relax, I listened to it. As time went on, I became more and more connected to the song. I just love the simplicity of the song, the depth of the instrumentation, the acoustic guitar tone, etc. when tracking and producing our version, I wanted to stay true to the original but add things I was hearing in my head, hence the violins, cellos, keyboards, percussion, Leslie effects, xylophone, sleigh bells, etc. I wanted to create an atmospheric soundscape that would pay homage to the original.”
Dailor added, “First of all, I have to say what an incredible honor to even be asked to try and attempt a cover of one of Chris’s songs. The fact that Mark thought I could even come close to it is beyond flattering, and to be honest, my knee jerk reaction was to say ‘uh, no thank you, I’m not interested in embarrassing myself if I can help it’ haha! The track itself was totally out of my wheelhouse so I thought it would be a great challenge and an opportunity to try to honor one of my favorite musicians and vocalists for a great cause.”
Check out the lyric video for King Ultramega’s cover of “Dead Wishes” below.
“Dead Wishes” Artwork:
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