Alicia Keys Pulls The Plug On New Album

29 September 2005

The unplugged format was huge in the late 80's and 90's culminating with Nirvana's low-fi masterpiece. Now the format has been reinvigorated with Alicia Keys, get set for her 'Unplugged' CD/DVD which is due out on October 11. Along with Alicia there is a long list of special guests, including Common, Mos Def, Damian Marley and Maroon 5's Adam Levine. At one stage it looked like old rock dogs Bruce Springsteen and Keith Richards from the Stones were also going ot be part of the CD. 'I was going to cry,' Keys says with a laugh. 'Bruce and I were going to do 'New York City Serenade' but the schedule just conflicted. And with Keith, the day the show taped was the day the Stones started rehearsal for their tour. But it was really lovely to reach out to people I admire and for them to be so down to do it.' Keys uses the new live set to unleash a new song, 'Unbreakable,' which was originally intended to appear on her 2003 studio album, 'The Diary of Alicia Keys.' 'We set the crowd up and the vibe was just perfect, and then I walked over to my piano and I asked them if they wanted to hear something new, and they just went crazy,' Keys enthuses. 'It was so great to perform that song there for the first time.'

There will be no official unplugged tour from Alicia as she will get into her first feature film, 'Smoking Aces,' which begins shooting on November 3 and will continue until the end of December. By early next year, Keys says she'll be ready to get serious on her third studio album. Asked if she was already working on any new material, she replies, 'Oh, there's been a lot of things springing forth from me. I have this new direction I'm feeling I will go in for the next album. I've been playing around, experimenting and vibing on different styles. I have about four or five songs I've been working with but I`m constantly writing all the time.'