"Boots on the Ground"

Single w/ Massive Attack, 2026

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A few months ago, Tom Waits unexpectedly returned from musical exile with his first new recording of an original song since 2011. “Boots on the Ground” was a collaboration with trip-hop icons Massive Attack. Tom released a statement about the track:

“One day many years ago, I accepted an invitation from Massive Attack to collaborate. Their long release delay never worried me. Today, as in all of mankind’s yesterdays, guarantees this type of song will never go out of style. Man’s folly of fiascos is a feast for the flies. Hence, the B-side of Massive Attack’s upcoming 12 inch “The Fly” features my appreciation for the winged nuisance.”

Massive Attack is officially just two people these days—Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall—but they work with a few longtime collaborators. One of those is Stew Jackson, who co-wrote and co-produced “Boots on the Ground.” I got on a Zoom with Jackson last week to learn more about how Tom Waits’ first new song in over a decade came about.

Grant “Daddy G” Marshall and Stew Jackson in the studio, via MusicRadar

Before we get to “Boots on the Ground,” can you briefly tell me about how you first got connected with Grant and with Massive Attack?

I was working with a friend in a studio in Bristol. His band was managed by Massive’s manager Mark, and I knew Mark through other people. I think Grant was working with some other writers in London and he didn’t want to commute anymore. He wanted to work in Bristol. So his management reached out to us to do some work with him. That was 20 years ago, and I’ve been working with him ever since.

And if you had to define your role?

In the work I do with Grant for Massive Attack—because we don’t just do that, we do other things as well—I’m a co-writer and collaborator, I guess. Under that banner comes production and sometimes mixing and stuff. I don’t mix Massive stuff; Ben [Baptie]’s been doing that, and he’s amazing. We just make stuff up and farm it out.

So let’s get into “Boots on the Ground.” Tom said when it came out that this is years old. How did it get started, and when?

Grant and I were working on a piece of music that we liked because it had a kind of sad inevitability with this middle section that had this sort of faux flag-waving thing in it. We were digging that, and he was saying, “Who would be a good singer for this?” I just said, “Tom Waits would be great. He’s the guy.”

I spoke to our manager and he had a contact for Kathleen [Brennan, Waits’ wife and collaborator]. So I sent an email to Kathleen. I sent the track and said, you know, “This is pie in the sky business. If you dig it, great. If not, also great, everything’s cool.” I think a week later she sent an email and said, “Tom’s going to call you on Tuesday.”

Me and Grant were in the studio when Tom rang. It was about 10 minutes of just pissing ourselves laughing.

Why?

I don’t know. I guess it was a bit of a pinch-yourself moment. You know, I picked up the phone and went, “Hello?” And he’s like, [Tom Waits voice], “Is that Stew?”

That just immediately made me laugh, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the call.

What year? Do you remember, roughly?

Just before lockdown. I’m gonna say 2019.

I was wondering if it was even earlier. On the Wikipedia for [Massive Attack’s album] Heligoland way back in 2010, it mentioned something about a Tom Waits collaboration that never happened.

That might have been D’s [Robert “3D” Del Naja] camp. Massive is sort of in two separate camps. That might be why Mark had contact. I did work on Heligoland, but I was not involved in any Tom Waits stuff, if there was any.

This version of the song you send to Kathleen, is the music all there? How finalized is it other than Tom’s vocals?

The structure of the song was there, the main chords of the track. Because sometimes when you send music to singers to top-line on, we try and uncomplicate things as much as possible. Initially, it was just piano and an 808 and maybe a bit of guitar. There was very little going on. It didn’t have Tom’s wood-dragging stuff, the blocks. I’d heard a bunch of people say that was a sample, and it isn’t.

You mean that sort of percussion noise? I was going to ask about that.

Yeah, yeah.

Ok, tell me about the blocks. Now I want to hear more about that.

When we got sent the stems through, to put the vocals in the track, they came with it.

Was it on the vocal track or a separate track?

There were nine separate tracks for the wood blocks.

Nine tracks just of woodblocks? That sounds like Tom Waits.

Exactly. When you listen to one of them, they don’t make any sense. Then you put them together and you’re like, “Oh yeah!”

And I think I’ve got five tracks of Casey’s backing vocals.

So is that him and Tom in that bridge part, where the percussion cuts out and it’s slower?

Yes. That’s what Tom was calling the “angels on the battlefield” moment.

Obviously Tom’s lyrics are very political, this anti-war thing. Did you have the concept of what the song was going to be about, or was that just entirely Tom’s doing?

We did have that in mind, but we didn’t tell him. When he asked, “What’s it all about?” I, as a joke, just said, “Existence is pain, Tom.” And he started pissing himself and I started pissing myself. It was ridiculous, but I think he got it. He got what we were trying to do.

As you probably know, this is a theme running through his catalog. “Hell Broke Luce” and “Day After Tomorrow” and “Soldier’s Things.” Songs about soldiers. Anti-war in a humanistic way.

In a fuck-you way. Like, who are you to send these kids off to fight your dumbass wars? There’s punk rock in there. There’s deep defiance.

Once he sends these over, is there a lot of back and forth or refining?

No. I got my buddy Dan [Moore] to come and play piano on it. I was using a Moog Taurus for the bass. I used a whammy pedal on the guitar for that pitchy, horrible guitar stuff.

Me and Grant got a mix together that sounded really great, then it goes into the Massive Attack mincing machine, where the people who make decisions don’t make any decisions for ages. We got a little bit scuppered that G [Grant] got sick. That took us out of the picture for a bit.

All this work you’re doing, whammy guitar, etc, is that all happening basically at the same time, seven years ago?

Pretty much. As you hear it now was pretty much where it was at.

The midsection was slightly different. It wasn’t quite as mind-bending as the newer version, which I think Ben Baptie, the mix engineer, did. It was a bit nicer before. I think Ben and D have made it a bit un-nice, which is probably a good thing.

Was that part of that treating Tom’s vocals, or was that how they were sent?

Tom’s vocal was sent dry, and that’s how we’ve kept it. We didn’t really mess with it. There’s no point. It’s got to grab you as he’s delivered it.

There was no back and forth after the tune was done. G got sick for a bit, and then they were all fighting over what comes out or what doesn’t come out or whatever. I was as surprised when it came out as anyone else was.

So why now? Why would you say it did get revived all these years later?

I’m not entirely sure. I do think that a song like that, it doesn’t matter when it comes out. There’s always some bullshit going on in the world. There’s always some assholes sending other people to their death for no good reason.

I think that Massive getting out of their contract might have been [a part]. They got out of their Universal scenario, so I think that was a big catalyst of putting stuff out now.

There’s a whole other song, “The Fly”—or I don’t know if “song” is the word. There’s a whole other piece coming out on the B-side. Was that all also from this same pre-pandemic period?

That’s all Tom. That’s nothing to do with us.

It’s on the B-side of your single, but that’s not a Massive Attack thing?

No, it’s a Tom Waits thing.

He uploaded the vocal track to YouTube. I didn’t know if you guys were adding something to it or not.

No, we’ve just kept it like it is. It’s just a spoken-word poem. And it’s hilarious. It really made me laugh. He mentions a key in it. He says “F sharp,” and he does a little hum at the end. I checked it, and it is in F sharp.

So how did these get paired together on the same release? Do you know?

No idea. I remember Massive’s manager sent it to me quite a while before it came out and said, “Oh, this is the B-side.” I just went, “Cool!”

Tom must have just thrown it in or something, like a bonus.

I think he did. I think he just handed it in, like, “Put this out with it.”

Was there any later conversation with either Waits or his team? When you say you’re reviving a track that’s seven years old, presumably you need to give them a heads up at least. Was there a lot of back and forth?

Well, we sent a mix before G got sick, and they were really into it. Then everything went quiet for a little bit. I know that Mark had stayed in contact with Kathleen and Jody over the years, and they were pretty understanding of what was going on.

When we first started talking with them [again], the wildfires were kicking off where he lives. I think his ranch was under threat for a minute. It was not looking great. So there were all kinds of other weird things going on.

I think when Ben had done the final mix, they were just cool with it. They were like, “Great, let’s go.”

You mentioned maybe the pipeline’s going to loosen up. I was reading an old interview that you and Grant had done together and you talk about a Nick Cave track you were working on called “Gyroscope.” I was excited to go hear it, only to discover it never actually came out. Do you have a lot of these sort of collaborations that are just sitting around that?

Oh yeah. That was done quite a while ago. We’re sitting on loads of stuff.

Is the idea to make this like a series or something?

I guess. I think they’re just going to slowly put some more tunes out over the rest of the year. I’m not sure if Nick’s track’s going to come out on it. I think there might be an issue with political alignment. But Nick was great. I really love the track. It’s a wicked tune.

Any other interesting collabs that have been sitting around that may see the light of day?

We’ve been working with a girl in New York called Shilpa Ray. There’s one of her tunes I think will come out.

Patti Smith. She opened for Massive at Hyde Park in London a few years ago [2016]. We were all just stood at the side of the stage, watching her short of shamanistically own 100,000 people. It was incredible to watch.

She’s one of the most charismatic live performers I’ve ever seen.

Absolutely. So yeah, there a tune with her. There’s more stuff we’ve done with Damon Albarn from Blur and Gorillaz. There’s a bunch of other stuff. I’ve got hours of music on hard drives everywhere.

Did the Patti thing come out of that Hyde Park concert?

That’s right. I took a photo of Grant and Patti, and that was when he went, “Hey, are down for doing something?” She was like, “Yeah, sure, just send me something.”

I can’t wait to hear that.

Yeah, it is pretty fun.

I’m a big Bob Dylan guy. Have you ever reached out to Dylan? We’re talking people in his orbit. Patti, Tom, Nick.

I’ve asked. It’s just not happened. He doesn’t usually feature on other people’s music, which is fair.

We’ve done a lot of work with Hope Sandoval from Mazzy Star. Her manager, this guy Frank, he looks after Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. So we were kind of like…nah, let’s just leave it for a minute.

Tom was the best get, I think, really.

Tom’s an amazing get. It’s funny, I was like, has he collaborated with Massive Attack before? Spiritually, on some level, it seems very aligned.

That’s true. Different worlds, but definitely speaking a similar language.

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Thanks Stew! Buy the 12-inch with “Boots on the Ground” b/w “The Fly” on Bandcamp.