Anyone who’s gone deep into the background of 49 Winchester shouldn’t be surprised that they took on a Black Sabbath song recently. The bigger surprise is the one they chose, “Changes,” which is surely the softest, prettiest five minutes the English heavy metal band ever put down on tape.
49 Winchester’s stunning version of the sensitive ballad put an exclamation point on the fact that they’re not confined to country or Americana. They recorded it partly as a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, who left this world in July at the age of 76.
Simply put, they killed it. As mighty and legendary as he was, it’s safe to say that Ozzy never sang anything as soulfully as 49 Winchester’s Isaac Gibson did with the updated “Changes,” which was first released in 1972.
Virginia Born And Bred
All six of the band members are from western Virginia, close to where it meets up with Tennessee and Kentucky. In this area known as Central Appalachia, folk music, country, and bluegrass are deeply rooted. But being of a younger generation, these musicians had their ears open wider. They are no strangers to banjos, mandolins, and fiddles, but they’ve always been drawn to heavier music, too.
“That hard-rocking thing has really always been a part of us,” Gibson says. “We’re kids of a modern age who grew up with the internet, so we could pursue whatever music we wanted. When we were 15 years old, we were going to be in a metal band. That’s what we wanted to do.”
The band’s killer take on “Changes” was the first single from their sixth album, which comes out in May. The fact that they recorded someone else’s song is another surprise. From their very start more than a decade ago, they’ve played mostly their own material. They were on a break from recording at producer Dave Cobb’s studio in Savanah, Georgia, when they hit on the idea.
“We were sitting there eating lunch one day in the studio, and we were talking about how we needed another track or two for the record,” says Gibson. “We almost jokingly said we should record a cover because we’d never done that before. We tossed out a couple of ideas, and someone said, ‘What if we do an Ozzy song?’ And I was like, ‘Changes,’ that’s the one.’”
Everyone, including the producer Cobb, nodded their heads yes. Once they finished eating, they hurried back into the next room and began working on it. Within a few hours, another classic 49 Winchester track was completed.
Angling For A Record
Such enthusiasm and efficiency on Cobb’s part are among the big reasons the band wanted to work with him. The new album, “Change of Plans,” is their first on Cobb’s Lucille Records, which is a division of MCA. He famously favors capturing bands’ onstage energy by recording them live in the studio.
“He’s one of those guys that, if you’re in our vein of music, everybody wants to make a record with Dave,” Gibson says. “He’s just a brilliant producer, and all of the records he’s made are the kind of records I’ve wanted to make my whole life.”
Another benefit of recording with Cobb in Savannah was that they got to unwind with some fishing after spending their days in the studio. For Gibson, it was a chance to cast a line into some new waters, which is something he loves to do when the band is traveling. He says about half of the guys in 49 Winchester share his love of the outdoors.
“We stayed right on the Intracoastal Waterway, or a creek arm or whatever it was, and got to fish off the dock quite a bit in the evenings,” he says. “We mostly fished for speckled trout, using live bait that we caught. There were some redfish around, but we couldn’t get a hook in one.”
Back home in the Clinch River Valley, the fishing is all freshwater, of course. Fans can get a good glimpse of the hilly, scenic area in their video for “Russell County Line,” released in 2022. Recalling their earliest days, Gibson says at first it was just him, Chase Chafin, and Bus Shelton playing as a trio with acoustic instruments. They soon went electric.
“We grew up in a place where most of the musicians were really, really into country or really, really into bluegrass, and we dug more into the country side of things,” he says. “We started plugging Telecasters into Fender amps and turning them up until they started crunching, and that kind of changed everything for us."
How 49 Winchester Band Got Its Name
It was during one of those early jam sessions that they came up with a band name that instantly suited everyone. They had been suggesting different names, but many of them seemed silly, Gibson recalls. Then he found one that was as close to home as it could be.
“We were having a rehearsal on my parents’ deck one evening and I looked over at the mailbox, and it said, ‘49 Winchester’ and the ‘ST’ (for Street) had been weathered and scratched off. I thought, ‘Man, that’s cool. That’s got a ring to it.’”
So, while many people might think their band name refers to a firearm, it actually comes from the address of the old house, built in 1897, where he grew up and learned to make music. He says he practiced playing and singing upstairs, with his bedroom door shut, and his bandmates were the first outside of his family to ever hear him.
These days, pedal steel player Noah Patrick and drummer Justin Louthian help to broaden 49 Winchester’s sound while maintaining the band’s original spirit of collaborative creativity. Gibson says he writes the songs and encourages his musical partners to take them where they want to.
“We always wanted to be a band that made our own way,” he says. “Most of it, really from the jump, has been us trying to express ourselves and be artistically free.”
Editor’s Note: 49 Winchester’s new album, “Change of Plans,” is scheduled for release in May 2026 on Lucille Records. Be sure to watch for a separate story about the album.
