His clean fix

The CD cover is black, the words “Mark Lanegan Band” all but lost in the upper right corner. Inside, the liner notes are equally dark, with Lanegan emerging from the shadows, cigarette dangling, world-weary eyes casting suspicion.

It’s apt symbolism for the singer, who’s as well known for his substance abuse problems as he is for the husky vocals he contributed to the now-defunct psychedelic grunge outfit Screaming Trees. In and out of rehab for problems with alcohol, heroin, crack and other substances, Lanegan has returned with emotional baggage, but it’s the weight of that journey that’s spawned the boldest, and likely the best, record of his career.

“Bubblegum,” released in August, is a brooding and bluesy spiritual exorcism littered with discarded needles and blood, morphine and meth, and performed with a revolving cast of rock royalty. PJ Harvey, Greg Dulli (Twilight Singers/Afghan Whigs), Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri (Queens of the Stone Age), and Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver) each toss their talents into a moody rock mix.

Lanegan, 39, is clean now, but that doesn’t mean he likes to talk about it. “It’s a hugely boring subject, and also one that’s so cliche that it doesn’t even bear discussion,” said Lanegan, who “hit bottom” in ‘97, landing him in a rehab center, then a series of recovery homes.

These days, the drugs are no longer in his system, but they’re definitely in his lyrics, even if it’s subconsciously.

“You can only really sing about what you know, at least I can,” said Lanegan, a Washington state native who lives in Echo Park. “In a way, I don’t really examine the stuff as I’m doing it. I just let it go where it wants, and only later do I sometimes figure out what it is I’m talking about.”

It isn’t the subject matter so much as the music that makes “Bubblegum” stand out in his career. It’s the first to break the folky acoustic mold of his previous five solo records, all of which had been billed as “Mark Lanegan” and were penned with Dinosaur Jr. alum Mike Johnson.

With “Bubblegum” and “Here Comes That Weird Chill,” a preceding EP of songs recorded during the same sessions, Lanegan spreads his wings well beyond the Americana that, as a solo artist, underpinned his distinctively rich and smoky vocals. There’s an industrial grind to “Methamphetamine Blues,” driven by Homme on guitar, drums and bass. There’s a skeletal fragility to “Bombed,” a duet with Lanegan’s ex-wife Wendy Rae Fowler. “Come to Me,” a duet with PJ Harvey, is a sexy, countrified sendup to the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence.” “Strange Religion,” a mesmerizing chorale a la Spiritualized, is peopled with a hard rock who’s who -- GNR’s Stradlin and McKagan and QOTSA’s Oliveri.

“I’d been bugging him to make a rock ‘n’ roll record,” Homme said. “He and I and Nick, we’ve always been into rock that has this strange, dirty, gypsy vibe to it, whether it’s Beefheart or Roky Erikson, where something’s out of tune but it’s rockin’ at the same time.

“When this record started coming together and [Lanegan] was like, ‘I think I’m going to change it up on everybody,’ all that was left for me to do was beg to play on it.”

QOTSA’s influence is significant; six of the record’s 15 songs feature either Homme or Oliveri -- longtime friends of Lanegan’s and, until recently, bandmates. “Bubblegum” was recorded during breaks from QOTSA’s mammoth 2 1/2 -year tour supporting the group’s enormously successful “Songs for the Deaf,” one of two QOTSA albums to which Lanegan lent his vocals.

Lanegan will appear on Homme’s and Oliveri’s individual releases this winter -- two of his many side projects.

He is half-finished with a project he’s recording with Belle and Sebastian’s Isobel Campbell, and three-quarters finished with the Gutter Twins, yet another collaboration with Dulli.

Lanegan says he’s never been in such high demand.

“I wasn’t the easiest guy to work with when I was younger,” he said. “There was a time when there were a lot of offers, and I didn’t take them. Now that I’m older and I enjoy music, I try and look into every possibility.... In 1997, I thought I’d never make another record.”

He blames Screaming Trees for killing his love of music, discounting his 12 years with the band as “just a way to make my lunch money.”

He was energized by his involvement with QOTSA and his 2001 solo record, “Field Songs.”

“That’s when I started to feel like I knew what I was doing finally with my voice. I knew what to say, and I didn’t have to think too much about it. When I reached that point, everything became a lot easier.

“It was no longer a struggle. It was, in fact, a joy. A pain turned into something that I looked to as a form of therapy. I found that if I started playing guitar, the rest of the world just sort of melted away. When that happened, then I knew it was something I was going to stick with. That was a good 15 years into making records. I have a high tolerance for pain.”

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Mark Lanegan

Where: El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Monday

Price: $18.50

Info: www.theelrey.com or (323) 936-6400