Credit: Tammy Vega

Credit: Tammy VegaFormer Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer has risen above conflicts with his former band mates and various health challenges to record a second solo album, Rise, which will be released on September 13. The veteran rocker collaborated on the project with his backing group, #keiferband, which features his wife, Savannah, on backing vocals.

Keifer has released a lead single from the album, “The Death of Me,” and an official video for the blisteringly heavy track has premiered on Cleopatra Records’ YouTube channel. The song focuses on the adversity that Tom has overcome in recent years while keeping his music career going. Reflecting that, the video begins with a TV screen flashing messages revealing some of the issues the singer/guitarist has faced, including vocal paralysis, seven voice surgeries, and legal trouble involving his solo recordings.

“We created ‘The Death of Me’ to inspire people not to give in to or be defeated by the seemingly insurmountable lows that we all sometimes face,” Keifer explains, “but rather to Rise and overcome them.”

Tom adds about the album, “We were trying to capture the feeling of what people have witnessed live with this band…There’s an off-the-rails, real live feel to Rise — and that’s what we were going for. It shows a real kind of angst and reckless abandon that we tried not to polish too much. And when we pull it back on the ballads, it’s more about the emotion, the soul, and making people feel something in a different way.”

Rise will be available on CD, as a colored-vinyl LP — on red, blue or green vinyl — and digitally.

Meanwhile, Keifer and his band kick off a new series of tour dates tonight in Nashville. Check out his full schedule at TomKeifer.com.

Here’s the Rise track list:

“Touching the Divine”
“The Death of Me”
“Waiting on the Demons”
“Hype”
“Untitled”
“Rise”
“All Amped Up”
“Breaking Down”
“Taste for the Pain”
“Life Was Here”
“You Believe in Me”

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