A ‘Mission’ for 2 Minds

Hard rock veteran Edgar Winter has an unlikely collaborator on his upcoming album--L. Ron Hubbard, the late founder of the Church of Scientology.

Hubbard, who died in 1986 at age 74, is credited with writing the words and music on Winter’s “Mission Earth” album, due next week on Rhino Records. The LP is based on Hubbard’s 10-volume series of “Mission Earth” books, published in 1986.

Winter told Pop Eye that he never met Hubbard--whose other books include the best-selling “Dianetics”--but corresponded with him by cassette in the year before Hubbard’s death.

“It was very much his concept--a series of science-fiction books with an album of music,” Winter said. “We recorded several different versions of each song and he would listen and comment.”

Winter said that he is a proponent of Scientology, but added that the album doesn’t promote that philosophy.

“ ‘Mission Earth’ is a science-fiction series,” he said, noting that the message of the first single and video, “Cry Out,” is anti-pollution.

Winter, who topped the charts in the mid-’70s with the hard-rock instrumental “Frankenstein,” said that he isn’t concerned that the Hubbard association might make pop and rock radio stations shy away from the album.

“If the music is good, I don’t see why they would concern themselves about that,” he said. “It’s not disseminating Scientology in any way. This is very much an Edgar Winter album. It sounds like a contemporary rock record.”