DATE: MAY 1, 2026

FROM: MITCH SCHNEIDER / ANDREA FAULK

THE BONES
RETURN WITH LETHAL NEW SINGLE
“WOKE UP DEAD”

LISTEN TO THE TRACK HERE
WATCH THE LYRIC VIDEO HERE

“Woke Up Dead” Single Artwork (download)

“Crashed-out, thinkin’ bout the things you said
I woke up dead, I woke up dead
Freight train, runaway inside my head
I woke up dead, I woke up dead”
–“Woke Up Dead,” THE BONES

THE BONES, fronted by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Patrick Vitagliano, have followed up their previous track “My Kind of Crazy (Feat. Phil X)” with today’s (May 1) release of “Woke Up Dead.” With thunderous guitars, snarling vocals, and a dirty glam-rock feel, the song may be the Las Vegas-based hard rock/punk band’s most lethal offering yet. The vivid lyrics mince no words about someone who is “artfully adept at using her words as a weapon,” says Vitagliano. “And let’s face it, we’ve all known many people like that throughout our lives, but I just sort of rolled all those people up into one single verbal, super villain, because it made for a good story.” Listen to the track HERE and watch the video HERE.

“Woke Up Dead” was written by Vitagliano who also co-produced the track with Vinnie Castaldo. It was recorded in Las Vegas at The Tone Factory. A Q&A about the song follows below.

THE BONES—singer/guitarist Patrick Vitagliano (Nuclear Theory/Nuclear Assault spinoff with John Connelly), guitarist Jeff Duncan (Armored Saint/Odin), bassist Sean Koos (Joan Jett & The Blackhearts), and drummer Daniel Margasa (Pat Travers/Rock Godz Hall of Fame)—have four full-length original albums under their belt including Circle in 2024. They are preently recording of a new album.

On the live front, THE BONES will perform May 16 at the Dive Bar and June 26 at the Copa Room inside the Tuscany. They’ll also open the “Totally ‘80s Pool Party Concert” at The STRAT on June 6, joining Bow Wow Wow, Naked Eyes, Prescott Niles’ The Knack, and Missing Persons. THE BONES will play a set of ‘80s covers including ones from their two punked-up covers albums, Ruin Your Rock Show, Live! (2015) and Ruin Your Rockshow, Vol II: Live From the Apocalypse! (2020).

Q&A with Patrick Vitagliano of THE BONES
About “Woke Up Dead”

“Woke Up Dead” has a big, thunderous sound that draws on your hard rock and punk influences, with a killer chorus. Can you talk about the song’s sonics?

Yeah, this one is kinda like a sleazy-rockabilly/glam. So in addition to the usual, straight-up, Bones guitar grind, there’s also piano in there, a pedal-steel that we ran through a ratty, vintage, tube-screamer….and the guitar solo has a real Nashville style to it but with the usual Bones-snarl. The vocals sorta ride the line between that, and Marc Bolan [T. Rex] though, who I greatly admire for his glam sensibility and imagery. I feel like this one is pretty tasty.

Vinnie Castaldo and you co-produced the track. Can you talk about working with Vinnie?

Vin and I have done six albums together now, and we’re somewhat in lock-step with each other when it comes to mix decisions. I’ll make a suggestion, only to find he’s already making that very edit. It’s gotten to where we get in a work groove and almost don’t have to speak…we just do.

The song has strong lyrics, starting with the “I woke up dead” theme and including lines like “You’re a total electric/An icepick in lipstick/Yeah, and you cut so deep.” What lyrically inspired the song’s sentiment?

So that’s a funny story about a very unfunny story…
My friend Brian was talking about this friend of his, who actually had a child pass away in his sleep, out of the fucking blue! Just awful.
Anyway, I asked… Was he sick?
No.
Were there any warning signs whatsoever??
No.
So he just… Woke up dead???
And Brian said… No, you idiot, he didn’t wake up at all. He was fucking dead!!
We laughed for a very long time about my inability to grasp the situation, but the phrase really stuck with me.
It resonated, like an earworm, so much that I eventually found myself singing it. 

Do you know people who embody lines like these?

“Tongue like a razor, disciples, they praise ya
High atop your velvet throne
The ego you’re feedin’, you laugh while I’m bleedin’
You wear it like cheap cologne”

This one is pure fiction. The antagonist is essentially a woman who is artfully adept at using her words as a weapon. And let’s face it, we’ve all known many people like that throughout our lives, but I just sort of rolled all those people up into one single verbal, super villain, because it made for a good story. Beyond that, though, I find using words to evoke emotion, any emotion, incredibly fascinating.

They can bring us incredible joy, and heartbreaking pain.

They can cause us to act or rally us to support a cause.

They can cause us to worship and adore or loathe and even hate.

They can drive someone to euphoria or even drive some people to suicide. Think about that for a second….how fucking powerful is that?!?

They can paint vivid pictures of lush fantasy, or nightmarishly bleak dystopia, and you will see and feel it through the right combination of 26 letters.

As a lyricist, they are just as powerful and instrument as a classical master pouring out their soul on a Stradivarius.

Your voice is a particularly sriking instrument. Who are your biggest influences?

As a vocalist, I could name you an endless list of singers I admire, but I can’t call them influences, because my range is so limited that I barely consider myself a vocalist. That said, I have learned to work within my limitations, to do the most with the least.

But if you are asking for an influence, whenever I sing a line, I always ask myself… What would Mike Ness [of Social Distortion] do?

What’s next for The Bones?

A few things actually. We are obviously working on new material, which will eventually be part of a new full-length Bones album, but will likely start out as Bonus-Tracks on a “Greatest Hits” Double-Vinyl release, later this year, though I feel self-conscious using that term, when “Least Worst-of” fits better 😉

But we’re also doing something completely experimental. We’re re-imagining/re-recording an entire album’s worth of Bones tunes as country-songs and using it to launch an alter-ego live project to perform this reimagined material, along with other classics that span the classic to modern country genre. We’re calling that project “Paper Cowboy.” It’s in its infancy right now, but we’re pretty excited about it. It will be me, with some other exciting Las Vegas players and we’ll probably soft-launch it in the next few weeks, so stay tuned…

The Bones
(Photo Credit: Vincent Young)

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For press inquiries about THE BONES, contact:

SRO PR
Mitch Schneider // mschneider@sropr.com
Andrea Faulk // afaulk@sropr.com

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