Last fall we selected The Roots’ guitarist “Captain” Kirk Douglas for our Relix 44 list of “people, places and things that inspire us today.” On May 24 he will release Turbulent Times, his first full-length solo release as Hundred Watt Heart. Mark Kelley (bassist for The Roots) and Ricc Sheridan (drummer for Earl Greyhound) join him on the record, which features eight new songs written and recorded over the past two years.

As we noted in our profile, “Douglas recalls that during his formative years, ‘there was a stew of influences going on in my mind: Prince, Living Colour, P-Funk, The Cure, The Stones, Zappa, Fishbone, and Marvin Gaye.’ While living in Manhattan during his early 20s, Douglas immersed himself in the live music scene and he fondly recalls, ‘There were just so many venues that I didn’t entirely know what I was going to see. I was just going on a little expedition in the night and I sort of expected the unexpected.’”

All of this is reflected on Turbulent Times and today we share “Little Friend” from the forthcoming release. Douglas tells Relix, “‘Little Friend’ is about this sort of infamous incident where I lent my 1961 Epiphone Crestwood to Prince, who was performing on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. He tossed it in the air at the end of the performance and it broke when it hit the ground though he apologized and took care of getting it fixed. Lyrically I’m describing how upset I was but looking back it was amazing to share that moment with a musician like Prince. Funnily enough, that Epiphone is currently on display at the Met’s ‘Play It Loud’ exhibit of famous instruments if you want to go see it.”