Words by Jesse Serwer, via GQ
If you’ve thumbed your way through GQ‘s music issue currently on newsstands, you might have noticed Jimmy Cliff included among a section devoted to music industry “survivors.” The inclusion is but a lead-in to an interview with Cliff, newly published online, conducted by our own Eddie STATS, which you can read here. In it, Cliff, whose Tim Armstrong-produced Sacred Fire EP (a prelude to an upcoming LP) is out later this month, discusses meeting Rancid founder Armstrong, returning to his rocksteady roots with the new set, and his relationship with Joe Strummer of the Clash (whose “Guns of Brixton” is covered on the EP) and more. They also got a clip of Cliff performing “Sitting in Limbo/”
From what we’ve heard of the new tunes—including “Ship is Sailing,” currently downloadable at Cliff’s site —they find Cliff in top form. Far from your run-0f-the-mill, OG-on-cruise-control fare, this project could be for Cliff what 2009’s Questlove-produced Lay It Down was for Al Green. It’s got Grammy contender written all over it.