Singled Out: Billy Morrison and Corey Taylor's Incite The Watch Feat Steve Vai (2024 In Review)

01-04-2025

Singled Out is one of our most popular features where artists share the story behind their songs. Billy Morrison scored a top 24 story of October 2024 when he was Singled Out for his song "Incite The Watch" featuring Corey Taylor and Steve Vai. Here is the feature in our look back in the Year In Rock:

The song appears on Billy's recent release "The Morrison Project" that features an all-star lineup of contributors including Ozzy Osbourne, Steve Stevens, Tommy Clufetos, Jourgensen, John5, D.M.C., Billy, Idol, Linda Perry and more. Here Billy with the story behind "Incite The Watch" :

This track began life as two completely separate pieces of music. I already had what I call "The Wildhearts" section (if you don't know who The Wildhearts are, I suggest a quick Google...... one of my biggest inspirations!) and this section was always going to be a solo of some kind. It was written one afternoon with Erik (Eldenius - drummer of Billy Idol) and Jeordie White, with all three of us being deliberately obtuse with our chord choices!!

Three key changes, rhythmic patterns and quite long. But Erik also had this ominous piano thing that was swamped with reverb and a nasty guitar bend that was in exactly half the tempo of the solo section. When I started to build on this idea, my love of EDM sounds took over and I started throwing big sounding pads and breaks everywhere. I played the first guitar solo at the end of the first chorus and suddenly had the thought that Steve Vai would be the obvious choice for the main guitar solo.

Steve graciously agreed to do it so then it was just a matter of asking Corey if he wanted to be on a song with Vai! I've known Corey a long time, he has one of the greatest modern voices out there and he literally sent the song back exactly as you hear it.

No editing, tuning, or anything. The guy killed it! And as a side note, I had to call him and get the lyrics because I didn't even know he was singing the words "Incite The Watch"...... I was hearing something completely different!

Corey had previously said of the collaboration: Billy and I have known each other for so many years and we've done many performances together, it was only a matter of time before we put together something original and fascinating. Alternatively, I've been a Steve Vai fan since I was 15, and never thought I'd ever get the chance to do something amazing with him. Enter the great Billy Morrison who got both Steve and I on INCITE THE WATCH! I'm so stoked to be a part of this album with so many great artists and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Vai added: Billy Morrison is always getting into some kind of intense and creative musical mischief, and this record is the evidence of that. When he sent me the track "INCITE" I was very eager to contribute to it. It is slamming and crushing, and the energy of the track is palpable. It's nice to be part of his mischief.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here