Tom Waits’ First New Music in 15 Years Is a Chilling, Macabre Protest Song
Rolling Stone | 16.04.2026 20:18Tom Waits‘ first new original music in 15 years is “Boots on the Ground,” a vividly gruesome indictment of wars both foreign and domestic that he recorded with Massive Attack (for their first new music since 2020). He condemns soldiers pursuing people perceived as “Brown, mean and young, dumb and full of cum,” and he reserves special ire for the senators who deploy them. “Now who the hell are these federal pricks? … air-conditioned fuckstick loafers, sittin’ in a room full of army posters,” he asks about midway through the song, which lopes along at a bluesy pace with Massive Attack’s signature pensive atmospherics. It all leads to the haunting refrain, “Boots on the ground, boots on the ground.” Waits’ son Casey is also featured as a vocalist on the song.
