The Waterboys announce new album, Life, Death And Dennis Hopper

The Waterboys have announced details of their sixteenth studio album, Life, Death And Dennis Hopper, which is released on April 4 via Sun Records.

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Running to 25 tracks, the album is a song cycle framing the late actor/director/photographer’s life story against the last 75 years of western pop culture. “The arc of his life was the story of our times,” says Mike Scott. “He was at the big bang of youth culture in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean; and the beginnings of Pop Art with the young Andy Warhol. He was part of the counter-culture, hippie, civil rights and psychedelic scenes of the ’60s. In the ’70s and ’80s he went on a wild 10-year rip, almost died, came back, got straight and became a five-movies-a-year character actor without losing the sparkle in his eye or the sense of danger or unpredictability that always gathered around him.”

“It begins in his childhood, ends the morning after his death, and I get to say a whole lot along the way, not just about Dennis, but about the whole strange adventure of being a human soul on planet earth,” says Scott.

Produced with Waterboys bandmates Famous James and Brother Paul, the album features guests including Bruce Springsteen, Fiona Apple, Steve Earle, Nashville-based artist Anana Kaye, English singer Barny Fletcher, Norwegian country-rockers Sugarfoot, Dawes‘ Taylor Goldsmith, Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s and Patti Palladin.