Myles Kennedy was born on November 27, 1969, in Boston, Massachusetts. His work as Alter Bridge’s singer and guitarist, his collaboration with Slash and his solo recordings grew from interests that connected lead guitar, soul singing and the craft of writing songs.
Raised in Spokane, Washington, Kennedy initially concentrated on lead guitar. In a 2011 interview with Guitar International, he recalled spending his early playing years learning solos before a guitar competition prompted a change in priorities. “I want to start chasing down the songs,” he remembered deciding. He learned to sing by following soul records, while jazz and fusion broadened his guitar playing.
By the time Alter Bridge approached him, Kennedy had sung and played guitar in The Mayfield Four. That band’s breakup left him questioning whether to keep pursuing a recording career. He told Metal Hammer in 2017 that he had been ready to concentrate on teaching guitar. Mark Tremonti remembered Kennedy from a 1998 support slot and reached out in 2003. Kennedy travelled to rehearsals in Orlando, and Alter Bridge began playing together in early 2004. He also had to learn how to front the band without the familiar comfort of a guitar in his hands.
His guitar playing became part of Alter Bridge’s studio sound on their second album, Blackbird, in 2007. Tremonti told Guitar Messenger that they developed songs on acoustic guitars before working them into electric arrangements with the band. That partnership is particularly clear on the title track: Kennedy plays the bluesier opening passage of the extended solo, then Tremonti takes over as the heavier guitars arrive. Kennedy also wrote the lyrics about a friend who had died, giving the extended arrangement a deeply personal subject.
On Slash’s self-titled 2010 album, Kennedy sang “Back from Cali” and “Starlight,” then became the guitarist’s touring vocalist. He told Guitar International that Slash’s emphasis on groove connected with the feel he had absorbed while learning to sing. The collaboration offered another setting for the soul influences behind his voice.
His own debut, Year of the Tiger, arrived in 2018 with a more intimate subject. Its largely acoustic approach framed songs about his father’s death in 1974 and the aftermath for his family. The record gave him room to explore that history across an album, bringing experiences from long before his professional career into the foreground.
Getting there meant setting aside an album he had already recorded. In a 2018 interview with Distorted Sound, Kennedy explained that the earlier material no longer connected with him strongly enough to serve as his solo introduction. He began writing a replacement in December 2016. With producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette, he wanted arrangements that left the songs and vocal performances at the centre, keeping the production restrained.
“Love Can Only Heal” supplied a link between the abandoned project and the finished debut. Kennedy brought the song back, but its vocal wasn’t taken from the earlier album session. He and Baskette returned to an older demo Kennedy had recorded in his basement, kept that performance and rebuilt the instruments around it.
