Billie Joe Armstrong, Norah Jones Celebrate Summer Love in ‘Kentucky’
Summer love fills the air in the new clip for “Kentucky,” a cover of the Everly Brothers‘ track courtesy of Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones. Late last year, the unlikely pair released Foreverly, a track-for-track tribute to the Everlys’ 1958 LP Songs Our Daddy Taught Us that found the brothers returning to their Tennessee roots after a string of pop hits.
While the Everly Brothers initially recorded “Kentucky” with just acoustic guitar, Armstrong and Jones flesh out the track with piano, rustic percussion and occasional pedal steel slide to create a calming, sun-drenched number perfectly fitting with the outdoor adventures of two young lovers in the brand new clip. The protagonists catch a few waves (so we know the video was not set in land-locked Kentucky), go skinny dipping, blast some bottles with a BB gun and end the day with a beachside sunset.
Find out where the Everly Brothers rank on our list of the 100 Greatest Singers
In an interview with Rolling Stone about Foreverly, Armstrong said he “stumbled upon” Songs Our Daddy Taught Us a few years back and was immediately fascinated by it: “I thought, ‘Man, what made them want to make this record?'” he said. “It seemed so cryptic that these guys would be doing songs about death, being in jail and lost love.”
Recorded over nine days in New York City with the help of a few studio musicians, Armstrong took Don Everly’s parts, while Jones handled the late Phil’s higher harmonies. “That was the key to us – not to just copy the record,” Jones added. “Songs like ‘Down in the Willow Garden’ and ‘Put My Little Shoes Away’ – they’re such dark lyrics. We thought we’d play that up.”