Myles Kennedy Interview at Chicago HOB
5:20 p.m. CST, Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Alter Bridge is quickly making a household name besides Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall and Scott “Flip” Phillips just being associated with the band Creed. Alter Bridge is lead by one of the most gifted vocalists in Myles Kennedy, who is very humble about his vocal talent. Myles Kennedy and Aaron Keker discussed Chicago, Abbey Road Live U.S., hottest radio single “Ghost of Days Gone By,” UFOs, Myles Kennedy’s acoustic based solo album and K.D. Lang.
AARON KEKER: Alter Bridge performed yesterday and will be performing today at the Chicago HOB. The fact that Alter Bridge performed back to back dates in Chicago at the same venue, would you say that Chicago is one of AB’s favorite cities to play?
MYLES KENNEDY: Absolutely! Yeah. We were pleasantly surprised that we got to do two nights here. So it’s very cool.
AARON KEKER: Has been both days been a sell-out?
MYLES KENNEDY: Ah. I think last night was. I’m not sure if tonight is or not. That’s a good question. I usually don’t have a clue with that sort of thing until I step on the stage.
AARON KEKER: I pre-ordered the live music recordings on the USB drive for tonight’s show via Abbey Road Live U.S., which I think is a great idea! Rather than wait months for the live album to be released or maybe never, the live music recordings on the USB drive can either be shipped to your home or picked-up at the selected venue, I am assuming after the show.
MYLES KENNEDY: Yes, that is correct.
AARON KEKER: Was it Mark’s idea to team up with Abbey Road Live U.S. or was the entire band involved in making the decision?
MYLES KENNEDY: How did that go? You know actually I think that might have come about because they recorded a lot of the Slash tour. And so I worked with them and knew they, you know, did good work. Their guy went to our management and proposed recording some of these live shows. Just from a personal experience, I thought it was a great idea and then we talked as a band because there was a little bit of a concern that, you know, if we’re not having a good night, that it’s documented forever. But you know what, it’s documented forever regardless with people and their phones and everything, so you might as well get a good sound recording out of it, —
AARON KEKER: (Laughter) Right.
MYLES KENNEDY: you know.
AARON KEKER: Right, get people to actually purchase it too.
MYLES KENNEDY: Sure. Yeah. To be perfectly honest some of the shows we’ve had good nights and other shows speaking for myself I’ve sucked royally and it’s there forever. (Laughter)
AARON KEKER: (Laughter) Right.
MYLES KENNEDY: What do you do?
AARON KEKER: Well how excited were you to find out that “Ghost of Days Gone By” was the #1 Most Added Song on U.S. rock radio the week of April 19th?
MYLES KENNEDY: Pretty unbelievable! Yeah. Especially after coming off of “Isolation.” We have some momentum right now, which is really good at radio.
AARON KEKER: Well you tweeted on May 1st that “[You] should be writing and demoing but somehow I just got sucked into one of [those] UFO shows.”
MYLES KENNEDY: (Laughter)
AARON KEKER: (Laughter) Do you think that UFOs and mythical creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster —
MYLES KENNEDY: (Laughter)
AARON KEKER: exist?
MYLES KENNEDY:Oh, boy.
AARON KEKER: (Laughter)
MYLES KENNEDY: To be perfectly honest with you, I won’t deny with some of that stuff. UFOs in particular, ever since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated with. I think for us to think that we’re the only, you know, creatures in the universe that have the ability to travel around and are of higher intelligence, I think that’s pretty presumptuous of us as a species. So I entertain that there’s a possibility that there could be something out there. You look out there every night and there’s a ton of stars.
AARON KEKER: Yeah.
MYLES KENNEDY: Ton of planets, so you never know.
AARON KEKER: Right. Well in the last eleven days, I will have heard two of the most phenomenal vocalists in Chris Cornell and Myles Kennedy. Is there something in the water —
MYLES KENNEDY: (Laughter)
AARON KEKER: in Washington State that is making phenomenal singers up there?
MYLES KENNEDY: (Laughter)
AARON KEKER: (Laughter)
MYLES KENNEDY: Something in the water. Thank you, that is really nice of you. I don’t know, I think because it’s so gray and gloomy —
AARON KEKER: (Laughter)
MYLES KENNEDY: that we lock ourselves away and just sit around and write songs and kind of transfer some of that doom and gloom into art.
AARON KEKER: Yeah. Would you ever consider taking your voice and performing on Broadway similar to Sebastian Bach?
MYLES KENNEDY: I don’t know if I’d be very good at that.
AARON KEKER: (Laughter)
MYLES KENNEDY: That wouldn’t be my forte. I’ll pass on that concept.
AARON KEKER: I read that you are agnostic even though you were raised as a Christian. Do you have any friendly debates with Mark or Brian about the existence of God?
MYLES KENNEDY: Not really. Na. We kind of keep our spiritual beliefs to ourselves. We have like spiritual arm wrestling.
AARON KEKER: Right. (Laughter) So like free speech and religion, huh?
MYLES KENNEDY: Yeah, exactly.
AARON KEKER: It is rumored that your solo record is sitting on a hard drive waiting to be released. Will your solo album be more of an acoustic based album?
MYLES KENNEDY: Yeah, it’s definitely more of an acoustic based record.
AARON KEKER: Do you have a title for the album or will it be self-titled Myles Kennedy?
MYLES KENNEDY: I’m not sure yet. I haven’t decided what the album will be called or what the actual project will be called.
AARON KEKER: Okay. Any ideas, what the official release date will be?
MYLES KENNEDY: No idea. I thought about releasing it on I think it’s the 21st of December 2012 when supposedly the Mayan calendar ends.
AARON KEKER: Right. You know, I read something that actually that’s a myth so I don’t know if that’s true or not.
MYLES KENNEDY: That’s true, you never know. Just like my solo record could be a myth.
AARON KEKER: (Laughter) Yeah.
MYLES KENNEDY: (Laughter)
AARON KEKER: One of my favorite GN’R songs of all time is “Patience.” Were you nervous performing that song with Slash on MAX Sessions or were you very calm and collective?
MYLES KENNEDY: There were limited butterflies, yeah. There are any time you do something for television, you want to execute it in (Laughter) a good manner. Especially covering some of those songs because they’re such important songs to so many people that I do my best to get ‘em right.
AARON KEKER: Well it could have been worse. Was it Tori Amos that did “Sweet Child O’ Mine?”
MYLES KENNEDY: Oh, did she?
AARON KEKER: Ever heard that one?
MYLES KENNEDY: U-huh.
AARON KEKER: On piano, I’m not a big fan.
MYLES KENNEDY: Oh, really?
AARON KEKER: Near the end of “Come to Life,” the lyric reads, “And don’t forget we’re here to stay.” Do you believe that Alter Bridge is here to stay?
MYLES KENNEDY: I think so.
AARON KEKER: Alter Bridge has only released one music video from AB III on iTunes and that is “Isolation.” Will Alter Bridge release a music video of “Ghost of Days Gone By” or “Wonderful Life?”
MYLES KENNEDY: This point it’s such a different era where there really aren’t any outlets for music videos. It’s a matter of whether record labels want to, you know, sink the money into making a video versus taking that money and doing something else that might be more effective. So that’s kind of where we are at. At this point we’re not sure if we can justify another music video.
AARON KEKER: Myles, you wrote songs and rehearsed with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham. Do you know whether those songs will ever be released?
MYLES KENNEDY: Well we didn’t really write songs. There w[ere] a few occasions where there were some jams, but it wasn’t like a record was being worked on or anything like that.
AARON KEKER: Well, final question. I interviewed Jonny Hetherington from Art of Dying and he remarked, “[I]f I could ever sing a song with Kenny Rogers, I think I might just be in Heaven.” Besides Jimmy Page, are there any other singers that you would really enjoy singing with?
MYLES KENNEDY: Oh, man! That’s a really good question. I love K.D. Lang. I think K.D. Lang is brilliant. Celo’s awesome!
AARON KEKER: Come out with one of his outfits?
MYLES KENNEDY: Yeah.
AARON KEKER: (Laughter) That’ll be great! Well, all right dude! Thanks for your time! Appreciate it.
MYLES KENNEDY: You got it man!
http://alwaysacoustic.com/images/20110503_Myles_Kennedy_Interview_AB_.mp4
