On Jesse Malin’s 2019 album Sunset Kids, Billie Joe Armstrong made a cameo on the ferocious punk-rock track “Strangers & Thieves.” Now the Green Day frontman takes lead vocal on Malin’s “Black Haired Girl,” the latest song to be released from an upcoming tribute album to the New York songwriter.
Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin, out Sept. 20, is a benefit album for Malin, who continues to recover from a rare spinal stroke in May 2023. Bleachers’ version of “Prisoners of Paradise,” off Malin’s 2007 album Glitter in the Gutter, announced the project in June. “Black Haired Girl” also comes from Glitter, a record that Malin recorded not in his native New York, but in L.A. It’s a splashier, at times slick album that contains some of Malin’s best songs and was originally released on Green Day’s Adeline Records.
Malin and Armstrong first crossed paths when Malin’s influential glam-punk group D Generation was opening for Social Distortion. Since then, they’ve stayed close confidants.
“Jesse is a dear friend to me,” Armstrong says in a statement. “I love his songwriting. He is all heart…His passion is endless. We send each other YouTube videos (mostly old Ramones clips and New York Dolls). Every time I’m in New York he goes out of his way to make me, my friends and my family feel at home. He’s always down for a laugh or a shoulder to cry on. Jesse, we love you and we’d do anything for you.”
Along with Armstrong’s cover of “Black Haired Girl,” the track list for Silver Patron Saints has also officially been announced. Among the highlights: Bruce Springsteen covers “She Don’t Love Me Now,” off 2015’s New York Before the War; Counting Crows tackle “Oh Sheena” from the same record; Susanna Hoffs interprets “High Lonesome” from Malin’s 2003 solo debut The Fine Art of Self Destruction; Butch Walker does “In the Modern World” from Glitter in the Gutter; and Rancid go back to Malin’s D Generation days for “No Way Out.”
Bob Gruen
Last month, Malin announced his official return to the stage: He’ll perform at two all-star benefit concerts in his honor on Dec. 1 and 2 at New York’s Beacon Theatre. The first show is sold out, but tickets remain for night two. The lineup features Lucinda Williams, Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz and David Immerglück, Rickie Lee Jones, Jackob Dylan of the Wallflowers, Butch Walker, Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis, and Alejandro Escovedo, with more to be announced.
Malin gave his last headlining public performance on March 25, 2023, at Webster Hall in New York. Less than two months later, he suffered the spinal stroke, which affected the use of his legs.
Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin is available for pre-order now on Glassnote Records, including a triple-vinyl set. All proceeds go to Malin’s Sweet Relief artist fund.
Silver Patron Saints track list:
1. “Prisoners of Paradise” (feat. Bleachers)
2. “Oh Sheena” (feat. Counting Crows)
3. “She Don’t Love Me Now” (feat. Bruce Springsteen)
4. “Black Haired Girl” (feat. Billie Joe Armstrong)
5. “Brooklyn” (feat. Dinosaur Jr.)
6. “About You” (feat. Frank Turner)
7. “Turn Up the Mains” (feat. Alison Mosshart, Wayne Kramer, Tom Morello, Steven Van Zandt, Mike Watt
& Joey C.)
8. “Room 13” (feat. Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello)
9. “Don’t Let Them Take You Down (Beautiful Day)” (feat. The Wallflowers)
10. “The Way We Used to Roll” (feat. Spoon)
11. “Shane” (feat. Rocky O’Riordan)
12. “In the Modern World” (feat. Butch Walker)
13. “High Lonesome” (feat. Susanna Hoffs)
14. “Greener Pastures” (feat. Graham Parker)
15. “Meet Me at the End of the World” (feat. Alejandro Escovedo)
16. “Death Star” (feat. The Hold Steady)
17. “Riding on the Subway” (feat. Tommy Stinson and Ruby Stinson)
18. “St. Mark’s Sunset” (feat. The Walker Roaders)
19. “Dead O”n (feat. Ian Hunter)
20. “Almost Grown” (feat. Danny Clinch and Christopher Thorn with Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country)
21. “Shining Down” (feat. Aaron Lee Tasjan)
22. “When You’re Young” (feat. Low Cut Connie)
23. “All the Way From Moscow” (feat. Willie Nile)
24. “No Way Out” (feat. Rancid)
25.“You Know It’s Dark When Atheists Start to Pray” (feat. Gogol Bordello)
26. “God Is Dead” (feat. Agnostic Front)
27. “Frankie” (feat. Murphy’s Law)
