By Aaron Small

“If we get caught, everyone will see us stoned,” sings Black Stone Cherry vocalist and guitarist Chris Robertson in “Me And Mary Jane”, the first single from his band’s new album Magic Mountain. The song “Me And Mary Jane” is somewhat ironic in nature as the tempo is so upbeat and energetic, yet it’s about marijuana which completely mellows you out. Guitarist Ben Wells sheds some light on the situation in an exclusive interview with BraveWords.

“You know, we didn’t really think about it too much. When we wrote that song, we weren’t even really going for the vibe of any certain form of substance; it was just about having a good time. So basically the music came first and the lyrics came second. The song’s about hanging out and rocking.” That being said, the actors in the video, which can be seen below, are all smoking joints and getting high. However, the blonde-haired guitarist is adamant that he does not smoke marijuana. “I do not partake. We’re pretty chill man. We’re not activists, we’re not Bob Marley; but it’s not the worst thing in the world either. It’s all personal stuff.”

The question that continues to polarize opposing factions in both Canada and The United States of America is; should marijuana be legalized? “I don’t think it’s going to be that big of a deal. I think it’s going to be legalized regardless before too long,” says Ben. “If it’s used in recreation and moderation, I don’t think it’s any worse than drinking alcohol. There’s definitely worse things people could be doing.” Lyrical subject matter aside, “Me And Mary Jane” is definitely one of the musical highlights on Magic Mountain as it features simultaneous guitar and bass solos; a very unique trait. “A lot of our stuff just comes from pure jamming, just finding a riff and rocking on it. We like guitar solos, and we dig the dual guitar solo stuff – the southern rock thing. A lot of that is just taken from our influences; we just try and incorporate as much as we can,” comments Ben.

Magic Mountain is the fourth Black Stone Cherry album, and each of them has featured a different producer. The 2006 self-titled debut was helmed by Richard Young and David Barrick. 2008’s sophomore effort, Folklore And Superstition, saw Bob Marlette (Alice Cooper, Shinedown) behind the board. While Between The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea, released in 2011, had Howard Benson (Motörhead, Sepultura) working his magic. Ben discusses the band’s reluctance to settle on one producer for consecutive albums. “I think we’re more confident now in knowing who we are as a band, and what our strongpoints are. But that doesn’t mean we’re never going to stop exploring other genres of music because we don’t ever want to be just one track. We like all kinds of different things – rock, metal, country, bluegrass, gospel, and blues. We don’t ever want to be pigeon-holed.”

Joe Barresi, who twiddled the knobs and tamed the boys on Magic Mountain, has worked with Apocalyptica, Queens Of The Stone Age, Tool, and Soundgarden to name but a few bands. “He actually reached out to work with us,” admits Ben. “And we just liked his track record. We really liked where he was coming from. He’s pretty old school as far as recording techniques; we recorded everything to two-inch tape. He just really understood the band as musicians. He really got a lot of great stuff out of us. We thought it would be a great match and it was.”

When you line the four BSC albums up side by side, Between The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea is the only one not to feature a picture of the band on the cover. For Magic Mountain, Ben and his cohorts returned to the tried and true formula of a group photograph for the artwork. “You just don’t see that enough anymore. A lot of old school bands – Aerosmith, Skynyrd – used to put their photos on the albums. We had some great photos and we wanted to use them. The photo that is the album cover, we thought was awesome.”

22 songs were written for Magic Mountain, 15 were recorded, and 13 appear on both the CD and digital versions. The other two songs can be found on the Japanese version, as well as an exclusive Best Buy edition. “They’re awesome songs,” exclaims Ben. “We wanted the album to be 15 songs, but we just couldn’t make that happen. They’re two heavier songs. One is called ‘Revolutionize’, and one is called ‘Leave Your World Behind’; ‘Revolutionize’ is one of my favourites.”

Undoubtedly, one of the most enjoyable songs on Magic Mountain is “Hollywood In Kentucky”. “Basically it’s a song we wrote with the intention of pitching it to a country artist, cause obviously it’s a country song. As time went along, the idea for us to record it as a demo came about. So we recorded it, just to see what it would turn out like. We sent it up to our record label and they loved it. In hindsight, it made perfect sense for us to record the song because it’s talking about exactly where we’re from; and it’s funny. We’re just as much a country-influenced band as we are a rock-influenced band. It throws the album a little bit of a curve ball, which I think is always good.”

Political correctness is thrown out the window with lines like: Mix champagne with Mountain Dew, Indian food would be corn bread and butter, KFC would still be Kentucky Fried Chicken. “Absolutely,” agrees Ben. And The Kardishians wouldn’t be allowed in it. When asked what his take is on all the bullshit celebrity media paparazzi garbage in Hollywood is, Ben modestly answers, “I think you basically just summed it up. I don’t understand it – who cares? Is there not something else we could be focusing on besides what some girl is wearing to a dinner?”

Another interesting song from Magic Mountain is “Fiesta Del Fuego”. The title is in Spanish, which translates to Feast Of Fire in English. The Feast Of Fire is an annual festival held each July in Santiago, Cuba featuring parades with floats, dancers, music and lots of drinking. “Right, we’ve never actually been there but we wrote it because another one of our influences, ZZ Top, who is from Texas, will have Spanish titles every now and then. We thought the title was cool, so when we were writing the song on the back of the bus about a party, we came up with that title. So we researched it and found out what it was all about. Another different avenue, not just regular old titles; we wanted to spice it up a little bit.”

“Never Surrender” breaks new ground for Black Stone Cherry as it features the most aggressive vocal heard yet from Chris. “Yeah, it’s a heavy song. Again, we were going for that. We wanted to step it up on all angles, and we had a lot of fun writing that song. We’ve been working it up in sound check, getting it ready to start playing live. It’s a barn burner, a riff monster.”

Black Stone Cherry just filmed a video for “Runaway” in South Hampton, New Hampshire. Ben describes the shoot as “very easy. It’s a video for Europe cause it’s the second single over there. It was a simple day. It didn’t take but about an hour once we got going. They’re going to use our footage for extra footage; I’m not going to tell what the video’s going to be about, but it’s going to have a narrative in it and we’re just going to be cut to during the scene. So our part was really easy.” Given the fact that the entire population of Planet Earth is constantly connected via the Internet, it’s somewhat puzzling that there are different singles and different marketing strategies in Europe as opposed to North America. “Oh yeah, but the markets over there are so different. The way radio is, the way television is, they have to service those areas. I get it, I understand it. I wish everything could be the same at the same time, but as long as it’s getting out there I don’t care.”