With a Songwriters Hall of Fame induction looming, Bob Seger plans to come up with more new songs as he continues to make progress on his next album.
"I've got five (songs) that I really, really like, and then I'm sifting through the other 70 that I've got in the can," Seger tells Billboard.com. It will be his first all-new studio release since 2006's "Face The Promise," though no release date has yet been determined. "Some of them aren't that old. Some of them are just last album stuff that I really liked and I got talked out of and I'm really sorry I did. I could actually put (an album) out for this fall right now if I wanted to, but I'm just going to write a little more before I make a final decision."
Among the songs Seger is weighing for the album -- whose current working titles are "Wonderland" or "Ride Out" -- are a duet with Trisha Yearwood called "The Price" and a rock ballad called "You Take Me." He's also considering a pair of live recordings from the 2006 tour with his Silver Bullet Band, his own "Sometimes" and a cover of Little Feat's "Fat Man in the Bathtub." "They're just firecrackers, pure rage, and I've been sitting on those for 20-some years and I'd love for people to hear them," Seger says. "There's mistakes in them, but I don't give a s***. They've just got this thing that is so powerful, and I think it'd be a nice kind of change-up to go from the contemporary feel back to that mid-80s feel."
Meanwhile, Seger is also penning music for the trailer to "Threshhold," a "psycho-thriller" film co-written by his son Cole, who just finished his freshman year of college.
New album or not, Seger plans to take his Silver Bullet Band back on the road for two weeks in November, hitting either the North American west coast -- including San Diego, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and Denver -- or Australia, where his 2011 compilation "Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets" has spent six weeks in the top 10 this year. "The promoters are kind of bidding against each other, and whoever comes up with the best deal is going to get it. Or, if we get greedy, we'll do both," Seger -- who played 54 shows in 2011 and early 2012, says with a laugh. He adds that he would like "to just finish what we started" in North America, hitting cities that the group didn't play on its last run.
Seger is also excited about entering the Songwriters Hall of Fame during the June 14 ceremony at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City, where he plans to perform "Turn the Page." "It's a really nice honor," says Seger, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. "They've been doing it since '69, so they haven't taken it lightly. Songwriting...I really work hard on that. I like to think that, like (Don) Henley says, I leave a little blood on the page and work really hard on my lyrics chord changes, structure and everything. So it's pretty heartening to get that nod."
Seger will be joined at the ceremony by Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Steinman, Don Schlitz and the team of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones. Special awards will be given to Bette Midler, Ne-Yo, Woody Guthrie, Ben E. King and Lance Freed.
