Monday, December 6, 2010

Black Eyed Peas: Fergie talks about her rock influences

Fergie rocks.

And she has a pretty impressive resume of influences to back it up.

The Black Eyes Peas singer has received raves and constant praise from Slash, with whom she worked on the track “Beautiful Dangerous” from his 2010 solo album.

“To many people, Fergie wasn’t an obvious choice for me to work with,” Slash says. “But, you see, I just knew she had a dynamite rock and roll voice. I’d heard her doing a rock medley at a Black Eyed Peas gig, and she was belting out the lyrics. I thought: Hell, yeah! After that I did a bunch of gigs with Black Eyed Peas. They were including Sweet Child O’ Mine in the set, and you should have heard her sing that. I think she’s the best woman rock and roll singer I’ve heard in the last 20 years.”

Fergie was recently named Billboard's Woman Of The Year and is featured on the cover of Billboard's Special Women In Music issue.

When asked about her vocal influences, Fergie laid out a healthy list of rockers.

“There are so many different people that I've emulated vocally,” she said. “In the rock world - Sebastian Bach, Vince Neil, Freddie Mercury, Robert Plant. They all had amazing vocal talent. And as far as female vocalists, I love Heart, Joan Jett, Courtney Love, Laura Branigan, Linda Ronstadt, Barbra Streisand-or going back to when I was a child-Aileen Quinn, the original Annie. I have so many different influences, and if you listen, you can hear all of them throughout my songs. I like to use different parts of my voice, and I don't limit myself.”

Slash Slash

Slash featuring Fergie – Beautiful Dangerous (2010)