Rolling Stones Tapped Chanel Haynes to Perform “Gimme Shelter” With Them on Tour, Now She’s Joining Ghost Hounds for an All-New Version of the Iconic Track (Exclusive)

The Rolling Stones know talent when they see it. Thus, it’s no surprise they tapped background singer Chanel Haynes to perform one of their hit songs, “Gimme Shelter” with them every night, a fact she can still hardly wrap her head around.

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“Them choosing me to expose me and take me on this stage with them is one of the most generous things,” Haynes told American Songwriter of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and the rest of the band. “… It’s the most physically difficult [song]. It’s almost like you teleport. It’s such an extraordinary song that Keith and Mick created together. I just feel really honored to have performed the song with them.”

The song, which was released in 1969, was a hit for the Stones and featured artist Merry Clayton, making it all the more daunting to take on.

“All these things go through your mind when you’re a true artist and you really do just want to honor the song,” she said. “I remember having all these thoughts. I’d never sang the song in my life.”

A pre-performance call from Clayton washed all those fears away, though.

“She just encouraged me and said, ‘You know what? I want you to sing this song the way you want to sing it, because the church is in you.’ She’s a pastor’s daughter—as am I—and she basically was saying, ‘Trust the compass, trust that compass in you,’” Haynes said. “I took that with me, and every night on stage, I was just Chanel, my most authentic, honest self.”

Chanel Haynes Teams Up With Ghost Hounds

In doing so, Haynes earned the Stones’ “respect.” She likewise caught the eye of SAVNT, the lead singer of Ghost Hounds who’d recently rediscovered the song. Soon, Haynes and Ghost Hounds managed to connect.

“Getting the incredible Chanel to come in and record it with us, it’s all kind of been a whirlwind and a dream,” SAVNT said. “It just feels like stepping into answered prayers.”

When the musicians began playing the song for live audiences, it quickly became apparent that concertgoers were on board with the cover.

“The Ghost Hounds are part of my family now,” Haynes said. “When we do that song together, it’s just really exciting. I just feel really blessed to be able to share the stage with them.”

The magic to Ghost Hounds and Haynes’ version of the track is that it knows what it isn’t. It’s not the Stones, and never had any intentions of trying to be. Instead, it’s a thoughtful ode to the iconic band.

“You can never be the Stones. The legends have done it. They’ve already done it,” SAVNT said. “… You have to honestly honor what has come before you and the shoulders that you stand on… We’re just honoring the people that came before us and not trying to be too different.”

SAVNT on Ghost Hounds’ Next Steps

In addition to their version of “Gimme Shelter,” Ghost Hounds and Haynes teamed up for a new original single, “Justified.” Proceeds from the A-side / B-side single pairing will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Written by band member—and “lyrical genius”—Thomas Tull, “Justified” is about someone fighting an inner battle.

“He’s having this internal battle within himself of, like, ‘I did the right thing, but it still feels wrong,’” SAVNT explained of the song’s main character. “That’s a war within everybody. Sometimes when you feel like you’re doing the right thing… but then there’s also the [thought of], ‘But what if I’m wrong?’”

The new track, SAVNT said, is “within the same wheelhouse” of the songs Ghost Hounds have been working on as of late. They’re all “guttural,” he noted, while “still in the vein of our blues rock, our roots music.”

“People’s reactions to the music, they’ve been amazing thus far,” he said. “Some of these songs we’ve actually been able to perform live. It feels like they’ve gotten a taste of it and we could actually see how they feel about it.”

That, after all, is what’s most important to SAVNT, how his band’s music touches peoples’ lives.

“When I get to actually meet with people who have been consuming this music, and they can actually talk to me about what it did for them in their lives, that is probably the best part of everything for me, to actually feel like you’re reaching people on a soul level,” he said. “That’s what I’m excited about with this project, just to see how it reaches people, what it says to them and how it speaks to them.”

Photos by Jay Arcansalin