Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy recently sat down for an interview with Music Radar and shared what it has been like to collaborate with Slash since 2010.
Although he would return later, Slash left Guns N’ Roses in 1994 due to intergroup conflicts, especially with Axl Rose. After quitting the band, he did not leave the stage and embarked on different musical projects. One of these was his solo career, which he kicked off in 2008. In fact, he later referred to his career change as a cathartic experience.
His debut album was released in 2010. He collaborated with many musicians on his self-titled album, including Osbourne, Fergie, Chris Cornell, Lemmy Kilmister, Dave Grohl, and his old bandmates. The voice of Myles Kennedy, who was in Alter Bridge at the time, was also featured in some of the songs.
This marked the beginning of a long-term collaboration between the duo, with Kennedy starting out as a touring vocalist and becoming part of Slash’s backing band under the name Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. They have teamed up for over 10 years, and created 4 albums together, the last of which ‘4’ came in February of 2022.
Speaking about his collaboration with Slash in his last interview with Music Radar, Myles Kennedy revealed that he learned a lot from the guitarist. He said that especially the fact that Slash started rehearsing weeks before for a tour or a record impressed him a lot and he adopted the same habit as his philosophy and work ethic.
While saying that this was a very beneficial way of working for him, the vocalist stated that it was all about repetition. According to him, everything becomes automatic once it is repeated enough, and it almost turns into a reflex. This helps him out a lot while on stage since he does not have to think about it and stress about doing something wrong.
Explaining that this is very useful, especially when it comes to the adrenaline rush of singing in front of a large group and the margin of error it can bring, the rocker added that when repeated beforehand, everything becomes almost a motor skill. Thus, he can play without having to worry about the possibility of making mistakes.
Here is what Myles Kennedy shared about his times with Slash:
“I’ll be here in my home studio, and I’ll plug into an amp. I’ll stand up, and I might even take a microphone just to kind of recreate the way it’s going to be on stage. I’ll just start running the tunes at a reasonable level volume-wise.
It’s all repetition, and that’s something that I’ve learned from playing with Slash, because he will rehearse for a tour or for a record many weeks prior, and that has been a real inspiring thing for me. And I’ve now taken that same philosophy and work ethic into my own world. And it’s really been beneficial.
It’s always the idea of repetition and doing it so you don’t have to think about it anymore. By the time you get on stage you don’t have to think about a thing; that all needs to be automatic, because you’re standing in front of people and you’ve got adrenaline, and that’s when things go wrong – if it’s not a motor skill at that point.”
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and Conspirators haven’t added any new events on their calendar lately. Slash is currently performing with Guns N’ Roses, with whom he reunited in 2016. As for Myles Kennedy, he released the album ‘The Ides Of March’ in 2021, and he will tour Europe in November with Alter Bridge.
