Making music with Slash, Alter Bridge and beyond
By Gary Graff
January 27, 2017
Myles Kennedy will be one of the first to tell you he’s no guitar hero, but he certainly knows his way around the instrument — and its players. He works regularly with two of the best, in fact, as the frontman for Alter Bridge with Mark Tremonti and with Slash and the Conspirators. They’re the latest stops on a full career for the Spokane, Washington-raised Kennedy, who started out playing lead guitar in the jazz group Cosmic Dust before moving on the Citizen Swing and the Mayfield Four. Kennedy was courted to play in Velvet Revolver, too, before joining forces with Tremonti and the other Creed instrumentalists in 2004; that group has released five albums, including The Last Hero last year, and Kennedy briefly collaborated with Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones on an unreleased project before playing on Slash’s 2010 solo album. The latter led to the Conspirators, which has released a pair of albums but is currently on hiatus while Slash tours with Guns N’ Roses. It’s been a lengthy, full and varied career so far, and Kennedy is confident an abundance of adventures still awaits him.
FGPO: You get more attention for singing than guitar playing, but you do love your axe, right?
Kennedy: It’s funny; as a kid I never wanted to be a singer — that’s what’s so strange about how things have turned out for me. I initially wanted to be just a lead guitar player, and as time went on I started writing songs. I discovered I really enjoyed singing, and so I really spent a lot of time developing that.
FGPO: Was there still a part of you pining for the guitar?
Kennedy: To be honest, I never felt that as a guitar player. I had friends that seemed like they could pick it up a lot quicker than I did. I knew there was certainly going to be a ceiling for me as a player; I don’t know if I’ve improved that much in 20 years, where some people have just continued to evolve. So, yeah, I figured out where my sights were and just kind of relied on that.
FGPO: Was there a kind of lead guitarist you wanted to be? Particular influences or models you wanted to be like?
Kennedy: I went through a lot of phases, really. Eddie Van Halen, hearing “Eruption” is what got me to want to play in the first place; I heard that and I was like: “I want to figure out what THAT is and what he’s doing.” So I went through an Eddie Van Halen phase. I certainly went through a Jimmy Page phase. I went through a John Sykes phase when I heard the ’87 Whitesnake record, and then there was a record called Blue Murder where John Sykes went out on his own. He was a really big influence on me, especially his vibrato. Then after that I went into a fusion and jazz period where I was listening to Frank Gambale, and I was listening to a lot of Mike Stern. I’ve always been schizophrenic in that sense.
FGPO: It seems like you’re stepping up a bit more as a guitarist in Alter Bridge now.
Kennedy: I love getting to play guitar, and I’m playing a few more leads on this touring cycle than normal. I really thrive on it. I enjoy it. But at the same time I don’t want to be the main guitar guy; I like the idea that I play in a band with somebody who’s as talented as Mark is as a guitar player. And having the focus on one guy, if it’s the singer and then he does a solo on every song, that would be redundant. I think it’s cool to have the attention shift. And it’s something that’s worked well in rock ‘n’ roll since the days of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant; It’s just kind of a winning formula for a hard rock band.
FGPO: What kind of working method do you and Mark have?
Kennedy: I guess with Mark and I there’s a certain chemistry. There’s something that happens when the two of us get together because we are very different writers. We’re kind of a yin and yang in a sense, but there’s a certain reaction that happens when you get the two of us in a room together. Especially as time has gone on we’ve evolved and come to understand each other’s strengths. It’s really become, I think, obvious that we have something creatively — at least to us that we have something that when you put us together it’s something neither one of us could really do on our own, so that’s been a lot of fun.
FGPO: The Last Hero is Alter Bridge’s fifth album. What felt like the stretches for you on this one?
Kennedy: Our goal is always to evolve without alienating. I think “This Side Of Fate,” when we hit that middle section, it’s very Queen-inspired; some people say they hear Muse, but to me Muse is essentially an extension of Queen, so that was definitely new territory for us. I think “Cradle To The Grave,” to a point, has a certainly difference in the way that riff feels to me. I remember when Mark played me that riff I thought it was something that’s unique and different for this band, feel-wise. We have a few moments that push it a little further on the album.
FGPO: Now that Slash is back with Guns N’ Roses, Alter Bridge can be a little more active, right?
Kennedy: We’re certainly spending more time on this album cycle. But what’s really different for me is, like, with the last two Alter Bridge cycles I’d do a tour with Alter Bridge and then Slash would be: “OK, let’s do some more writing” or whatever. Any time there was a window with Alter Bridge it was filled with Slash and the Conspirators. So right now when I get off the road, I’m actually off the road, and it allows me time to kind of power down and do some writing or whatever. It’s been a new dynamic.
FGPO: Do you think Slash and the Conspirators will be back at any point?
Kennedy: That’s a good question. The door’s certainly open on my end if it works out again. I’m certainly up for it. I think we’ll just see how it plays out. I think it’s just one of those things. We still talk. We do a lot of texting and whatever. But I think because both of us are so busy right now with our other entities, there’s no definitive plans in place.
FGPO: Did the rest of you guys know what was up with GNR and have to keep your mouths shut?
Kennedy: I guess to a point. We found out during the fall of last year, so obviously it wouldn’t have been appropriate for us to get on social media and be like: “Guess what I heard!” But, yeah, we definitely knew a few months before it was officially announced. I went to the first show in Vegas, which was awesome. It was definitely great to see those guys play together again and hear those songs. Appetite For Destruction was such an important record for me in my musical development, so that was a special night for me, for sure.
FGPO: How have you juggled writing for those two bands? They’re both in the same, or similar, stylistic realm?
Kennedy: It’s pretty easy because they are so different. If I have an idea in my mind that feels like Alter Bridge, I’ll stick it away in my notes file, so to speak. With the Slash material, it’s different, too, because it’s his cue. I’m waiting for him to give me the overall feel and the riff and the chord progression, and I’ll put a melody and a lyric to it. So it’s a different process. But right now I’m basically just doing AB stuff and also stuff that may end up on a solo record in the future. That’s kind of my M.O. at this moment.
FGPO: Will we be hearing the solo material soon?
Kennedy: There’s a record recorded, and it’s just a matter of finding a window, if I’m gonna put that out. But I’m also still writing. The thing about that record is it’s been around, it was recorded six years ago, and there’s always a shelf life, I think, and I just have to kind of ask myself: “Is this something that I’m still excited enough about to tour on?” and I guess that will be a big, deciding factor on whether that body of work eventually sees the light of day or if it’s completely different than what I’m working on now.
FGPO: I’m guessing that album probably isn’t your big reveal as a guitar god?
Kennedy: [laughs] It’s more singer-songwriter based, but it has a produced rock record vibe. When I first started the process back in 2008 or so, there’s a record I was really shooting to try to use as a template, Dirt Floor by a guy named Chris Whitley, which is one of my favorite records of all time. It’s just him and a resonator [guitar]. I love the idea it was so stripped down and so simple. But this record is definitely not that. As the songs evolved and we got in the studio, we kind of went crazy with arrangement ideas. It certainly is not what I initially set out to do — with that said, it’s not a bad record. It’s just different than what I set out for.
