Corey Glover laughs at the idea that time fixes anything. “As much as times have changed,” he says, “nothing has changed.” He’s talking about Shade, Living Colour’s long-awaited album that finally arrived after years of false starts, label shifts, and global chaos. The record, he explains, isn’t just a return—it’s a reckoning.
“When we decided we were gonna do this record, it was our homage to the blues,” Glover says. “And the blues never goes away.” It’s not just a musical form to Living Colour—it’s a lens. A way of talking about injustice, anger, love, fear, and everything that’s ever made rock and roll matter.
That explains why their ferocious cover of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Who Shot Ya?” fits right next to a Robert Johnson classic and new originals like “Come On.” “The blues is about circumstances,” Glover says. “Unfortunately, circumstances keep reminding you that nothing’s changed. We did ‘Who Shot Ya’ because gun violence hasn’t stopped. We did ‘Come On’ because there are still things you wish you could say.”
If that sounds heavy, it’s because Living Colour has always treated rock music like it should mean something. Since Vivid in 1988—home to “Cult of Personality,” their biting anthem about fame and power—the band’s made social commentary feel loud and alive. Glover still sees that song’s message everywhere. “There’s always going to be somebody who becomes a media darling,” he says. “A president, a religious leader, somebody off the street. That doesn’t change. That’s why ‘Cult of Personality’ doesn’t go away—it’s about the truth.”
Shade doubles down on that idea of truth through distortion, groove, and soul. Glover sees it as the band’s first true dive into the blues, even though they’ve flirted with it since day one. “We’ve hinted at it,” he says. “We’ve taken pieces of the blues and jazz and metal and hip-hop—but we never really looked it in the eye with our full focus. This time, we did.”
Helping with that focus was George Clinton, the funk godfather who adds his own cosmic fingerprints to the project. “George, in his own way, is a legend,” Glover says. “Think about a song like ‘Maggot Brain’—that’s the blues. He brought his own interpretation of it, and it was a big honor having him on the record.”
When you listen to Shade, what you hear is a band still charging into the fire instead of looking back at the ashes. The topics—racism, violence, media worship—aren’t new, but Living Colour doesn’t need novelty. They just need volume, conviction, and truth. “The blues never goes away,” Glover repeats, with the calm of someone who’s seen it all. “It just changes clothes.”
Listen to the interview above and then check out "Come On" below!
