Leslie West’s new album, Unusual Suspects, hits the streets September 20^th and may be the best album the Mountain Man has ever released in his 40 plus year career. This album is filled with 100% guitar heavy rock done the only way West knows how, which is dirty, gritty, distorted and loud. Even the softer moments on the album are filled with enough guitar heroics to please his fans.

The album features guest appearances by Slash, Zakk Wylde, Steve Lukather, Joe Bonamassa and the Reverend Billy Gibbons. The reason these great guitarists joined West on the album is simple: They have nothing but respect for the man. West may be most known for the gargantuan riff that opens the classic “Mississippi Queen” but guitar enthusiasts know that he is much more than a one-riff wonder. Over the course of his career, West has constantly stayed true to his musical vision and influenced nearly every famous guitar player to come since, including a guy named Eddie Van Halen.

In the interview that follows, West discusses the songs, the guest artists, on the album, and his recent amputation of one of his legs. While the album was recorded before losing his leg, West speaks openly about what he went through, including how the choice to keep, or lose, his leg was actually a moment of life or death.

West’s career has been amazing. He jammed with Jimi Hendrix, played the original Woodstock in 1969, having to be shipped to the stage in his own private helicopter due to his ballooning weight at the time. He wrote classic tunes with Mountain, and later with the legendary Jack Bruce. In this interview, however, because his new album, Unusual Suspects, is so darn good, we forgo the past to focus on the present day.

It is rare when a man in his 60’s can have the talent, creativity, patience and desire to continue to make great music. Now, a thinner, healthier West continues moving forward with his life and will celebrate his new album with a new tour. Look for West on the road in the USA, starting October 6^th with fellow guitar heroes Uli Jon Roth and Michael Schenker.

Leslie: I’m doing better. I’m going to be fitted for my prosthetic leg soon. I have a new respect for people who suffer amputations.

Leslie: I was flying down to Biloxi, Mississippi for a concert. It was a long flight and I got a blood clot. My foot actually turned blue. I went to the emergency room and they tried to do what they call “clot busting” with blood thinners. It spread so thin that after two days they asked my wife if they could amputate. They told her that it was either my leg or my life. I basically had poison running through me. It happened around June 19^th and I am just getting used to dealing with it. I am very glad that I had finished the album before all of this happened.

Leslie: That’s true, but some of these songs I’ve been working on for six years. The guy I wrote with, Joe Pizza, played me a couple of songs that he wrote thirty years ago for me; I went to school with him. We put it all together with the new songs that I wrote and then added the last cut I did with Zakk, which was the Willie Nelson song, “Turn Out the Lights.” Everything just really seemed to come together. I’m still not tired of listening to it.

Leslie: West, Bruce & Lang did that song. When I asked Joe to be on the album he said that his favorite cut from West, Bruce & Lang was “Third Degree.” He said, “If you ever want to cut that song then I’d love to do it.” I said, “Consider it done.” Joe is such a great guy. I did a cut on one of his first albums. I did the song, “If Heartaches Were Nickels.” Gregg Allman was on that song as well.

I went out to LA to record the album, my producer, Fabrizio Grossi, has a studio out in the Valley, but we went to another studio in Hollywood to get Slash and Joe to come in. We did most of the pre-production stuff on the East Coast near my home in Jersey. I was very happy that it all worked out.

Leslie: When I sent Slash the track “Mudflap Mama,” he said, “Frankly, I don’t know why you need me on there. I said, “You let me be the judge of that.” I’m playing a slide. The first solo is me and the second one is Slash. He listened to the track and then we went into a studio in Hollywood and he did that. It’s much more fun when you’re sitting opposite of someone making music. It was the same way with Bonamassa. We were sitting in the control room playing opposite each other, at the same time. That is much more fun than saying, “You do your part and then I will come back on Thursday and do my part and then you come back in next week.” The stuff I did with Zakk was out in Hollywood also; I’m talking about the Willie Nelson song, again. Slash, Zakk and I all played on that one when I was in Hollywood doing “Mudflap Mama.”

Leslie: He is brutal; that’s a great word. My wife describes how Zakk and I play on “Nothing’s Changed” as a husband and a wife having an argument. He is brutal but he doesn’t miss a note.

Leslie: He plays in a group with one of my producers. I wanted him to come in because I wanted to play an acoustic boogie on “One More Drink for the Road” but I couldn’t play it as smooth as he could. He just picked up the guitar and did it, and, bingo, it was over. He’s great and it’s a great part when you hear it come in.

Leslie: Oh my God, yeah… He’s done more sessions than there are hookers on 42^nd Street.

Leslie: My friend Joe wrote that. “Legend” is one of those songs I told you about, that he wrote for me thirty years ago. I didn’t realize that he even did that. He has a group and he records and I have played with him before. We know each other from school, as we were just a couple of years apart.

Originally, the song was called “Just Call Me Legend.” I said, “Joe, there is no fucking way I can sing the line, ‘just call me legend.’” After thinking about it for a couple of days, it came to me that I could sing, ‘don’t call me legend, I just came to play.’ Just changing the words around made it work for me. To me, I’m a legend in my own lunchtime or I’m a legend in my spare time. The song is really pretty and I’m glad we came up with something I could sing with it.

Leslie: I didn’t even go there. I wanted certain guys but the label had other ideas. They wanted me to get Buddy Guy. I don’t even know Buddy Guy. I’ve never met him. He’s a great player but I wanted to pick guys that I would want to go see and even pay to go see. They all wanted to do it, which is great. Sometimes, people’s schedules don’t cooperate but it all worked out and that doesn’t usually happen.

Leslie: It is a huge compliment; it really is.

I have to tell you about Billy Gibbons. On ZZ Top’s first tour, back around 1970, they opened for Mountain. You talk about a raw band. They played at the Capitol Theater in New Jersey and opened for us. Someone sent me some pictures of that gig too. I really love that song they did that night called “Francine.” It always blew my mind that Frank Beard is the only one in the band that doesn’t have a beard.

I even met Billy’s parents once. My father had remarried and he moved to Houston. I went down to see them and I was in the airport. I heard them page “Mr. and Mrs. Gibbons.” I wondered, “How many Gibbons could there be?” Sure enough, it was Billy’s mother and father. When we were doing this record, Billy goes, “You know, my dad still remembers talking to you at the airport.” I said, “You’re kidding me? That was a long time ago, man.” I hope my memory is that good when I’m his age.

He started writing the song “Standing on a Higher Ground” for me and then we met up in the studio and sang it, played it and put the leads on it. It really reminds me of a ZZ Top song. It gives me that same feeling as their music; I really love that group. Billy was a character in the studio. When he wasn’t recording music, he was playing dice and cards with the interns. If you couldn’t find him then all you had to do was leave the control room and look outside and there he is playing cards and having a good old time.

Leslie: I started writing that a long time ago for my wife. There are no drums on that song; I took them out. Kenny Aronoff played great drums on the album but I wanted this one to be acoustic and more emotional so we left it like that.

Leslie: I just played around with it. I used to play it on stage with no drums or bass. I was in the studio and my producer said that I should just put it down and then we will add drums and bass to it. I had no idea how to do that.

That song goes clear back to when I was a kid. The guitar player Waddy Wachtel grew up in the same building I did in Queens. He used to teach me all the cool stuff as soon as it came out. He showed me all of those great George Harrison licks in “I Feel Fine” and “Ticket to Ride.” I just took that song, over the years, and turned things around and did it my way. I wasn’t going to put it on the record but sometimes you just have to listen to your producer.

Leslie: Dean Guitars, when they were designing the Leslie West Signature Series made my initials that way to put on there. I just love it. I’m so sick of albums that have people on there posing for pictures and looking fake. The artist in Europe came up with the idea of using a road case and we just stuck my logo on it.

Leslie: I know when I listen to it the next day. If I wait until the next day and it sounds as good to me as when I recorded it then I know it’s good. If I listen to it the next day and I go, “What the hell was I thinking?” then I know it is not good. If it lasts a day, and if I want to play it again, then that is a pretty good gauge.

Leslie: I’m going on tour with Michael Schenker and Uli Jon Roth. We are hoping to start The Three Guitar Heroes Tour in October. I don’t know if I’ll be able to walk yet; I might have to sit while I’m playing, but I think I will be okay, either way. I just don’t want to worry about losing my balance on the prosthetic. You have to learn how to walk with one of those; it’s not the same as having your leg.

Leslie: I will tell you flat out: Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and, later on, Eddie Van Halen. Eddie got me to start playing the guitar again. I had not wanted to play the guitar for a couple of years. I had a drug problem and I just didn’t have any desire to play. I went and saw Eddie when Van Halen first came around. I think I was in Milwaukee and I saw him and went, “Geez.” He gave me my second wind to play guitar again. The melody he has is amazing considering how fast he plays. He is the reason that Michael Jackson became so popular. When he did that solo on “Beat It” that was it. Eddie once told me that the reason he used the whammy bar was to slow himself down. He would play so fast that he would do that in order to give himself a break.