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\n\tBrian Fallon<\/a> was driving his daughter to school just before he was set to hit the road with Gaslight Anthem<\/a> on their 2024 tour and pondering what fresh song the New Jersey rock band could workshop as a cover. He found a burst of inspiration from something his kid cued up.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201c\u2018What is this beautiful song?\u2019 I asked. And she said, \u2018It\u2019s Billie Eilish,\u2019\u201d Fallon says backstage at the Basement East in East Nashville, where he\u2019s getting ready for a gig that night. The song was \u201cOcean Eyes,\u201d Eilish\u2019s 2016 debut single, and he found it both irresistible and a little bit like an Eighties anthem. \u201cI listened to it the whole way home,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI could hear a little of Skid Row<\/a> in that song.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhen the Gaslight Anthem frontman got together with his longtime pal Butch Walker<\/a>, who produced Fallon\u2019s 2016 solo debut Painkillers<\/a><\/em>, to record an acoustic EP for Gaslight to drop before their tour, Fallon decided to put his own spin <\/a>on Eilish\u2019s dreamy ballad. It ended up having legs far past that recording session.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI could completely hear now that \u2018Ocean Eyes\u2019 might have been where the germ of this album started,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\tThat album is Not Bad for New Jersey<\/em>, Fallon\u2019s new solo album streaming now (a physical version drops Friday). Produced by Walker, it finds the two men bonding over their shared appreciation of glossy rock & roll, from Tom Petty to Tina Turner, and especially Bryan Adams\u2019 1984 standout, Reckless<\/em>. \u201cSongs with a lot of attitude, like early Melissa Etheridge and \u2018Missing You\u2019 by John Waite, were really big for me at the time,\u201d Fallon says.<\/p>\n \n\tAs he looked at the liner notes of those albums, Fallon noticed that many of those songs had additional co-writers. Previously, he\u2019d hunker down and work on material himself. This time, he changed things up and wrote with his friends, including\u00a0fellow singer-songwriter Donovan Woods (in Toronto), the Killers\u2019 Brandon Flowers (in Utah), and Lori McKenna and Nick Long.<\/p>\n