Lajon Witherspoon was born on October 3, 1972, in Nashville, Tennessee. As Sevendust’s lead vocalist, he carried a background in gospel, soul and funk into heavy music. “Angel’s Son,” which he co-wrote with guitarist Clint Lowery in memory of Snot singer Lynn Strait, gave that melodic side room to stand on its own.
His musical education began close to home. His father sang and played instruments in a disco band, and Witherspoon found an early outlet for his own voice in the church choir. He grew up hearing R&B, gospel and rock before Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy and Jimi Hendrix helped draw him toward heavier music. Those interests continued through Body & Soul, the funk rock group he fronted in Atlanta, which played shows with Mother’s Finest. “I still try to make my metal as soulful as I possibly can,” he told Metal Hammer in 2020.
Atlanta’s local bands also connected him with the musicians who would become Sevendust. Recalling those beginnings in a 2019 HEAVY interview, Witherspoon said Morgan Rose, John Connolly and Vince Hornsby approached him about getting together at a rehearsal space. The first sessions produced “Black” and “Crazy.” When the musicians took those songs into a local bar, the audience asked for more. With no other material ready, they played the same two songs again. What had begun as a jam was becoming a band.
Sevendust’s self-titled debut followed in 1997, and touring took Witherspoon beyond the Atlanta circuit. Looking back, he remembered the record deal, unfamiliar cities and crowds singing the songs as more immediate concerns than sales figures. The band’s early roadwork included Ozzfest, placing him on bills with musicians he had grown up admiring.
Writing about a friend’s death presented a different challenge. Strait died in a car crash in 1998, and Witherspoon struggled to find words for “Angel’s Son.” In a 2015 interview with Screamer Magazine, he recalled having the chorus but arriving at the recording session without finished verses. With Snot’s musicians in the control room, he asked for the studio lights to be turned off. As the backing track played, the first verse came out spontaneously; the second followed the same way. The recording captured words he had been unable to settle on beforehand.
The song appeared on the 2000 tribute album Strait Up before Sevendust recorded a version for Animosity in 2001. In a 2018 Loudwire interview, Witherspoon explained that its meaning had expanded beyond the original dedication. He connected it with losses in his own family and with the people listeners were grieving.
Another tribute required him to confront the expectations attached to someone else’s voice. During the sessions for Blood & Stone, producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette suggested covering Soundgarden’s “The Day I Tried to Live.” Witherspoon told SPIN in 2020 that the idea initially made him wonder who could possibly sing Chris Cornell’s part. He approached the recording by concentrating on the song’s meaning and singing it in his own voice. Sevendust’s version appeared on Blood & Stone, released on October 23, 2020.
