Today, GRAMMY-winning Irish-American rapper, singer & songwriter Everlast released his first album in eight years, Embers to Ashes on his own Martyr Inc Records, in partnership with Thirty Tigers and Regime Music Group (more via Variety, Billboard & SPIN). Produced by Yelawolf, mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, and with cover art by award-winning Tristan Eaton, the Americana and bluesy roots-rock album tells tales of glory grasped and lost, the sudden swerves that change a life’s trajectory, and hard-earned wisdom and warnings.
Also out today is “Mistaken Identity,” with a music video featuring Yelawolf. “I let him just steer the ship, and he nailed it,” said Everlast on the collaboration. “And a guy like Chris Lord-Alge has done it all for everybody. When we sent the album to Wolf, he wrote me back and said I’ve never in my life said I have no notes. When you don’t want to think about it, you hire the best people.”
“It was an expected pleasure to mix the new Everlast songs,” said Chris Lord-Alge. “His vocals really take you on a journey on every song. You feel like you’re around a campfire with friends telling stories of life.”
There are two mantras Everlast keeps close: whatever’s happening is inevitable, and this too shall pass. The philosophy comes into focus on Embers to Ashes, shaped by a decade that saw his Los Angeles home burn down in the 2018 Woolsey fire, the pandemic, a divorce and more. But the seed was planted a decade before – in 2015, Everlast was in Berlin and went to check out Yelawolf. That night, Yelawolf told him he’d love to produce a record for him. Ten years later, they connected in Nashville to make Embers to Ashes, with Yelawolf producing – encouraging him to bring in co-writers like David Ray (Jelly Roll, Teddy Swims).
Maybe it’s hard to understand how the guy who recorded one of the biggest breakout hip-hop hits in history (1992’s “Jump Around” with his old group House of Pain) as well as the enduring empathy anthem of the 20th century (1998’s “What It’s Like”) could go from Armand de Brignac to Canadian Club (“We went from champagne and crystal glasses to drinking cheap whiskey out of plastic,” he growls on “Stones”). After all, this is the same man who won a GRAMMY with Santana and went on to redefine rap’s relationship with blues and rock. But here’s the thing: this too shall pass.
“There’s a freedom in being broken,” says Everlast on previous single “Losing Man’s Game,” featuring intergenerational crew of Andy Frasco, Amigo the Devil and DJ Muggs (Cypress Hill) – who also produced House of Pain’s hit “Jump Around” – in the Reservoir Dogs-inspired video. “My Hollywood” is a lighter hearted take on the ups and downs of success in the entertainment world, while the first single and music video for “Stones” is a journey from self loathing to self healing and forgiveness (“soulful and heartfelt” – VICE, “a masterclass in the genre-bending style Everlast pioneered” – BroBible).
Songs like the bittersweet “Love Don’t Heal,“ and even the bouncy “Broken Heart for Hire” find him confronting the phases of heartbreak, from hurt to rage to numbness. Narrative pieces like the murder ballad “Never Coming Home” and the thoughtful “Happy You Can Cry” — a reflection on the meaning of freedom through the life of a woman down on her luck — fit comfortably in the tradition of honest, Springsteenian glimpses at American life. And, of course, Everlast’s story enters into fray, too. On “1987,” he recalls a simpler time of hanging out on the west side of the valley, right before he made a record with Ice T and — ultimately — endures through life’s deepest lows on “Embers to Ashes.”
The wider world, with all its own hurt, looms throughout the record as well. On the ghostly protest song “Rubber Bullets,” written as Everlast watched the fallout of George Floyd’s murder, he reminds listeners: “Rubber bullets kill exactly like the real ones.” A warm backyard bonfire singalong provides the us-against-the-world atmosphere for “Lies.” The incendiary “Peace of Mind,” with a music video featuring graffiti pioneer RISK, mixes down-home blues and epic rock as Everlast takes aim at the absurdity of modern life and escapism. And to close things down, the hopeful “Young Man” offers up the clearest of that aforementioned hard-earned wisdom, as Everlast assumes the role of elder, imparting what he’s learned during a life truly lived to those — like his two daughters — who are just setting out.
Everlast will announce more tour dates this year, having performed at Calgary Stampede on July 9 and later stopping by Red Rocks on September 19 in Morrison, CO and Oceans Calling Festival on September 25 in Ocean City, MD.
Everlast fans can sign up for updates, exclusives, and giveaways by texting “EMBERS” to the phone number (213) 319-4032.
Everlast is familiar. It’s not just that he recorded one of the biggest breakout hip-hop hits in history — 1992’s “Jump Around” with his old group House of Pain. Or that he made the empathy anthem of the 20th century — 1998’s “What It’s Like,” from his triple-Platinum LP Whitey Ford Sings the Blues. It’s not the GRAMMYs he was nominated for, or the one he won with Santana. No, the reason we feel we know the artist born Erik Francis Schrody is twofold: It’s in the way he redefined rap’s relationship with blues and rock, and it’s in the humanity he’s always brought to that sound — a mix that rings across the airwaves today. For more than three decades, he has made it his work to document the whole picture as he sees it and as he’s lived it, from humbling highs to devastating lows. The latter defined the lead-up to Everlast’s eighth album, Embers to Ashes, his inaugural LP on Thirty Tigers / Regime Music Group, and first in eight years. Produced by Yelawolf and recorded in Nashville with input from kindred spirits like songwriter David Ray (Jelly Roll, Teddy Swims), the 2026 set is a collection of unflinching and moving music from a master of the medium — songs that tell tales of glory grasped and lost, sudden swerves that change a life’s trajectory, and hard-earned wisdom and warnings. Through his rap-honed pen and earthy baritone, he renders our universal experiences in a way that gets to the heart of it all. In short, we feel like we know Everlast, because Everlast knows us.
