In one of the more intriguing collaborations of the week, Elton John has provided vocals and piano to the title track of Alice in Chains‘ Black Gives Way to Blue, out on September 29. The track is a tribute to the band’s former frontman, Layne Staley, who was killed by a lethal speedball in 2002. The collaboration was born when singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell decided that the song needed some piano parts and a friend suggested that he call Elton John.

Cantrell initially laughed off the idea of the collaboration, but then “decided it was worth trying and wrote Elton an e-mail explaining what the song meant to us- that it’s a real, raw, openhearted song for Layne.” After hearing the song, John indicated that he wanted to work with the group, claiming that he had been “an admirer of Jerry Cantrell” for a long time and “couldn’t resist” the offer. The track was recorded in Vegas as John wrapped up his Red Piano concert series. Cantrell claims that “the whole experience was pretty magical.”

With the exception of games that are either a) un-fun or b) just have nothing to do with jams, we’ve tried to keep current on all things video game-related. Today brings more news on the next installment of the Guitar Hero franchise, a game that promises to be a black hole/joy ride of behemoth proportions. The White Stripes and Elton John will be making their GH5 debuts, both “Blue Orchid” and ” Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting),” respectively, to be included amongst the fray. Also on the docket now is the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy For The Devil” as well as Sonic Youth’s Rather Ripped burner “Incinerate.” But the coup de grace remains an unreleased live recording of Nirvana’s “Lithium.” (via RS)

Here’s a complete list of the new additions:

Attack! Attack! UK – “You And Me”
Bon Jovi – “You Give Love A Bad Name”
Darker My Love – “Blue Day”
The Duke Spirit – “Send A Little Love Token”
Elton John – “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)”
Face To Face – “Disconnected”
Garbage – “Only Happy When It Rains”
Kaiser Chiefs – “Never Miss A Beat”
Kiss – “Shout It Out Loud”
Love and Rockets – “Mirror People”
My Morning Jacket – “One Big Holiday”
Nirvana – “Lithium (Live)”
The Police – “So Lonely”
Rammstein – “Du Hast”
The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy For The Devil”
Sonic Youth – “Incinerate”
Screaming Trees – “Nearly Lost You”
Sublime – “What I Got”
The Sword – “Maiden, Mother & Crone”
Thin Lizzy – “Jailbreak”
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “American Girl”
The White Stripes – “Blue Orchid”

Online culture zine The Rumpus.net published a highly readable oral history of Jeff Buckley just as he was getting his band together in New York during the early 90s. In addition to some great road stories (hammocks in their tour van, dudes) there’s some great unpublished interview material with Buckley nestled in there, most notably this quote from the the guy whose voice always makes you cry:

Having Tim Buckley as my father gave me the parts needed to play music. Even if I went and became a lawyer and someone asked me to sing something, I’d have the parts to sing. But that’s it. It’s not really [Tim Buckley's] voice that I have – because it wasn’t really his voice to begin with. It was passed down to us from every man in our family

In other Buckley news, a newly remastered and unreleased cover of Elton John’s “We All Fall In Love Sometimes” is surfacing on the soundtrack of a new Cameron Diaz vehicle with “Beaches”-worthy tear levels written all over it. Probably NSFW if you’re a real man’s man. Just saying.