[Cover photo is an image from the upcoming “Becoming” Music Video, (L to R: Billy Morrison, Sully Erna, and Nuno Bettencourt), photo credit to Jane Stuart @JaneStuartPhotos]
British guitarist, singer, and songwriter Billy Morrison has released the song “Becoming,” marking the first single from his upcoming album, Hollow, due out in August 2026 via TLG | ZOID/Virgin Music Group.
The track was written by Morrison, Sully Erna (Godsmack) and Brett Scallions. It features Erna on lead vocals and Grammy Award winner Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme) on lead guitar. A video is forthcoming.
According to Morrison, the song is about:
…transforming out of the darkness and negativity of certain lifestyle choices and becoming a strong, positive and powerful force. For an in-depth description, you would have to ask Sully about the lyrics that he wrote.
..when the music to ‘Becoming’ was finally finished, in my mind there was only one person I could imagine singing it, and that was Sully Erna. His work with Godsmack over the decades has just proven his voice to be one of the most powerful in rock music. Plus he’s a great guy to hang with, so fortunately for me, not only was his response ‘Absolutely I’ll sing it.’ We got to record it in Los Angeles together while he was here. It was a killer vibe, and when we were all at the Above Ground show late last year here in LA, it seemed only fitting for me to ask Nuno to play lead (keeping it Boston on this track!). And again, he graciously agreed, and absolutely killed it. It’s been a pleasure to work with both Sully and Nuno on this song—it’s the perfect collaboration to launch this new album of mine!
Erna says:
I really enjoyed working with Billy and Nuno on this track. It’s always a bit challenging when you have three creative people that work at such high levels of production to get to the finish line, but in the end the product always speaks for itself. And this song is strong! It’s a perfect example of not settling for anything less.
Bettencourt chimes in:
When you’re asked to collaborate on a song with incredible artists like Sully Erna and Billy Morrison, you’d have to say ‘yes’ before even hearing the song. But man, when you DO hear the song and it’s as badass as this…you forget who’s on it and just do it for the love of it.
The upcoming album, Hollow, will follow 2024’s The Morrison Project, with a similar format of 12 songs where half are sung by Morrison and half sung by a handful of Morrison’s friends.
Guests include Dexter Holland, Marilyn Manson, Chuck D, B Real, Duff McKagan, Steve Stevens, DMC, and the above-mentioned Sully Erna and Nuno Bettencourt, among others.
Morrison adds:
The guests on this record are at the core of the collaborative spirit that I try to put in the center of these records. Every single person I worked with stepped up, brought their A game and helped me produce an album that crosses genres, features some really diverse songwriting, and yet has a truly cohesive, and powerful sound. Ultimately, I am just grateful to everyone involved for allowing me to do this again.
