Gary Cherone’s Hurtsmile Return With ‘Rock N’ Roll Cliche’ – Exclusive Song Premiere
Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone is back with his band Hurtsmile, and Ultimate Classic Rock is pleased to present the exclusive premiere of ‘Rock N’ Roll Cliche,' the first single from the band’s upcoming album ‘Retrogrenade,’ which will be released on Oct. 7 on Cherone’s own label, Slipkid Records.
The album draws upon the collective classic rock influences shared by the members of Hurtsmile, who grew up with the music of legendary bands like Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Queen and Led Zeppelin.
In an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Cherone explains what the new single is all about, saying that it’s quite simple: “‘Rock N’ Roll Cliche’ is giving the people what they want. This is what you do. You do anything long enough, it’s somewhat of a cliche. You want to keep it vital and still passionate, but we’re in a rock 'n' roll band -- at the end of the day, there’s certain things that you do that you did when you were that 15-year-old kid in the garage to being a guy 30 years later -- you’re doing the same thing. So I just thought the title had a nice ring to it.”
‘Rock N’ Roll Cliche’ has interesting lineage too. The title dates back to a song that Cherone was working on for the follow-up album to ‘Van Halen III,’ his lone release with the legendary group.
“It was actually a lyric I wrote for [my] second Van Halen record, and I had it on file," he says. "That’s happened before, you know, you always have a lyric in your back pocket. It’s just been buried for years, and I heard my brother Mark jamming on this riff and it just screamed for that lyric to be kind of rewritten. The melody and some of the lyrics have changed, but the original idea was an old Van Halen song that I wrote back then. So it’s a brand new song and some of the verses are the same, but the names are changed to protect the innocent."
Hurtsmile will play a show to celebrate the release of ‘Retrogrenade’ on Oct. 11 at Mixx in Malden, Mass.