Shooter Jennings and Billy Ray Cyrus Team Up for Record Store Day Special Release Duet [LISTEN]

Shooter Jennings and Billy Ray Cyrus have teamed up for a new song that will be released specially for Record Store Day 2015.

The two singers are joining forces on "Killing the Blues," a tune written by Rowland Salley and covered by, among others, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, for their 2007 Raising Sand album. You can listen to Jennings and Cyrus' version below.

For Cyrus, the idea for "Killing the Blues" came at a pivotal time, after his 2012 Change My Mind album, released while he was performing in the musical Chicago on Broadway, failed to produce any big hits. Worse, his time on Broadway coincided with the deadly Hurricane Sandy, which ravaged much of New York City.

"My whole career blew out to sea with the storm. It took me two years to recover from all the bad stuff that happened to me," Cyrus tells Rolling Stone Country. "I had withdrawn into this place where I felt sad and all I did was play music. In the midst of that, Shooter hit me with this wonderful piece of music.

"It sounds crazy," he adds, "but it's like something that was totally meant to be."

Jennings' late father, Waylon Jennings, was the one who first introduced his son and Cyrus, forming a perhaps-unlikely but long-standing friendship.

"[Waylon] took me into this room where his stereo is," Cyrus recalls. "He said, 'My son is onto this new sound, and it's full fledged rock 'n' roll, but it has Southern roots,' and he started playing me Shooter's stuff.

"And here we are now, full circle," Cyrus adds. "Shooter has some kind of outlaw mojo around him that he's been born with, and you can't ignore it."

And the admiration is mutual.

"The times I was probably most lost in my life, he would randomly show up," Jennings. says of Cyrus.

The B-side of "Killing the Blues" is a cover of Waylon Jennings' "I've Always Been Crazy," featuring Lee Roy Parnell on guitar.

Other country artists releasing albums on Record Store Day 2015 include Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Blackberry Smoke, Chris Stapleton, Asleep at the Wheel, Gregg Allman, Chet Atkins, Steve Earle and the Dukes, Johnny Cash and the Everly Brothers. LeeAnn Womack will release a limited-edition three-track record, while Elvis Presley‘s first-ever recording will be made available on vinyl by Jack White‘s Third Man Records.

Record Store Day 2015 will take place on April 18. A complete list of stores and artists participating in the event can be found on the Record Store Day website.

Listen to Shooter Jennings and Billy Ray Cyrus, "Killing the Blues":

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