Gig in the Sky

When Brandon Lehman, bassist for Jelly Roll, heard the news of "Metal Legend" Tony Manotas' passing this December (cause undetermined; possibly heroin overdose or heart attack from high intake fried chicken), he famously stated "It's like metal died today."

However, he felt that this didn't do justice to the good memories he had of Tony, so Lehman recorded this album, consisting of 3 songs, and 3 monologue tracks.

The first song, and album track "The Great Shred in the Sky," is Lehman's tribute to Manotas, in which he starts out with mellow piano chords, followed by tear inducing lyrics about a boy who dropped out of high school, joined a community college band, and made it big. When the lyrics end about the boy, the tempo picks up slightly, followed by samplings of the soaring vocals on the original Great Gig in the Sky by Pink Floyd, separated by Lehman's own vocal echos with the lyrics "It's time for you to fly." When it settles down, Lehman takes over singing his own rendition of the soaring vocals, and flawlessly hitting the high notes. Then, abruptly, the tempo picks up with a Free Bird style jam for six straight minutes, still with various "It's time for you to fly." At the end of the jam, the soaring vocal samplings start back in, and a chorus of women sing gospel style while a wicked guitar solo wails on, fading out.

The three monologue tracks are Lehman commentary about the three people he misses most, and the three people these songs are dedicated to: Manotas, Mitch Mitchell, and Brad Delp.