The thing about being fronting a rock band is that you’ve got to be cerebral enough to write lyrics and record the music and yet dumb enough to actually perform it, to throw yourself out there night after night without a second’s thought.
There is a time when the brain has to be shut down. Instinct takes over. Myles Kennedy knows this only too well, fronting Alter Bridge, playing with Slash and the Conspirators, performing solo.
“Well it’s either a talent or just too dumb not to know not to step into the arena, dumb enough to step into the ring,” he says. “You’ve got to be dumb enough not to know when to quit.”
Kennedy is joining us in an ante room in a west London hotel ahead of the launch of Alter Bridge’s eponymous studio album, which is out on 9 January through Napalm.
He and Tremonti have told us all about the surreal, once-in-a-lifetime experience of recording at 5150 Studios, and now Kennedy is going to talk all things vocals, how he takes care of it, the singers who influenced the most, and how he and Alter Bridge producer, Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette found the secret to getting the perfect take in the studio.
Oh, and while he was with us, we had to ask which of W. Axl Rose’s vocal performances were the hardest to replicate when out onstage with Slash.
Was there a moment when you thought that you had found your own identity as a vocalist?
As a guitar player there is so much I want to learn and evolve with, without a doubt
“Oh, man. It took a long time! [Laughs] Because I think I was listening to too much of any specific artist and then it ends up rubbing off [on you]. I think I finally felt it about 10 years ago. I don’t know if I could pinpoint a certain moment but I thought, ‘Okay, this is who I am.’ And it really did take a long time. Some people find it in their early 20s, on their first few records – some people find it even earlier than that. For me, I had to do a bit of experimenting.”
Speaking to Mark, he says there is always something else to explore. Is that how you see it, that’s there’s more to learn with guitar over time?
“Definitely more on guitar. The vocal element? I feel that I am content with it. I don’t know if I am going to chase that down. I want to chase down more songs. You still want to write the song, right? Which I personally feel I will never achieve.”
When you do it is time to give up.
“Yeah, absolutely. If you think you’ve written The Song, you should give it up. But as a guitar player there is so much I want to learn and evolve with, without a doubt.”
Which singers have been the biggest influence on your voice?
“The vocalists I looked to would have been Stevie Wonder, that was probably the very first one, and then Jeff Buckley was a massive influence. Like, Jeff Buckley and Thom Yorke, together in the ‘90s, were big influences on me. And as the years have gone on – this is going to sound kind of interesting – I love female singers, and there’s just something about Ella Fitzgerald, and I could listen to her forever.”
How do you keep your voice in shape on the road?
“It is a life of no fun! [Laughs] It’s the lonely, lonely life of a singer. You sing and you go, you get to the bus, you shut up, and you get to your bunk and you get as much sleep as you can. And you don’t party. You don’t talk a lot.
“I think a lot of people assume I am kind of standoffish when I am touring because I am not talking. Some guys have a real fortitude that way, who just talk all day, and do press, and they can still do a great show, but the way my voice is, maybe because I am accessing so much of the range, it just gets real finicky so I have to put it away.”
You park yourself in the upper limits of your range – that’s demanding on the voice.
Elvis knows my voice better than any producer I have worked with because we have done so many records together
“Yeah, it is demanding – especially the older you get.”
Has it ever failed you?
“Oh, sure! Yeah.”
How do you get through that?
“With maximum amounts of stress! [Laughs] It has failed mainly due to getting ill. That’s the thing. As far as the technique and all that, I have figured out how to use it, how to utilise that and get through the tour, but if you get a respiratory infection there is only so much you can do.”
This is related to what we were talking about earlier about recording at 5150 Studios, and capturing the live energy, but how do you bring that into the vocal booth? Because the two scenarios are quite different.
One thing we do is we’ll hit a certain part really hard, give it maximum intensity, and then let it rest for a few minutes
“Yeah, they are different, and it’s interesting because the way I do it now, let’s say with vocals, that’s one thing where Elvis has really figured this out for my voice – he knows my voice better than any producer I have worked with because we have done so many records together – and it’s the idea of, ‘Right, we’re going to sing this down, we’re going to get it to open up, make sure everything sounds right, with preamps setup for the volume, blah blah blah.’
“But one thing we do is we’ll hit a certain part really hard, give it maximum intensity, and then let it rest for a few minutes. Instead of just going, ‘Okay, we’re going to do three passes, just give it a 100 per cent, and then we’ll put a comp together and take it from there.’ What we do is we’ll focus on a section, know what we need to do, and that way we are in and out of there – sometimes in an hour-and-a-half! – and we’re done with the track.
“It used to be, you’d be turning it in, just singing it down, singing it down, singing down and singing it down, and then the voice would get worn, it would get tired. Instead, you keep your voice fresh all the time. You just have a finite amount of power and pitch control, and once that stops with the human voice, okay, just put it away.”
What is the last song you sang at karoake?
“Karaoke terrifies me. The last time I did karaoke was in 2008. I think it was on my birthday, and we were on tour, and Mark and the guys got me very drunk.
“In fact this was probably one of the last times I drank on the road because they just obliterated me. We went to a bar down the road from the gig, I sang Here I Go Again by Whitesnake… And there I went! That was the last time I ever A) sang at karaoke, and B) got inebriated while on tour.”
You have to sing Guns N’ Roses songs and that isn’t easy with Axl, because he has this natural drive in his voice.
“He does. He’s got that overdrive, and the range! Incredible range.”
So, what is the hardest GNR track to sing live?
“I would say the hardest one for me is probably My Michelle, just because it’s so intense. But man, I love that song. Oftentimes, the songs I love the most are the most difficult to pull off. That one is definitely a challenge.”
What is your best vocal performance?
“Oh man! That’s a good question. My best vocal performance? I’m still waiting for that one. [Laughs]”
What like was it like tracking vocals at 5150 Studios?
“Interestingly enough, I didn’t track vocals at 5150. We finished guitars and vocals in Florida. And I will say there, there was a [Sheffield Labs] microphone that I borrowed from Mark that he got from Paul Reed Smith, which has been saying forever, ‘You gotta try this mic!” And sure enough, this mic is magical. And Elvis changed his preamps.
“He got a new console, and we basically ran through a Fairchild-esque compressor, that has all the sonic hallmarks of a Fairchild, and whatever that chain is, man, it just made it so much easier to track vocals because you can hear every detail. It helped me with the pitch. It helped me with everything.”
Red light fever. Do you suffer from it and how do you cope with it?
“No. I think I’ve been making records for so long that I am very comfortable in the studio., I don’t want to say too comfortable but I used to get red light fever as a young artist. I don’t really get it [now] but you know when I do get red light fever, it’s any sort of live television thing.”
Jimmy Kimmel.
“Yeah, like, big time! Totally.”
Are there any lyrics that you have been embarrassed by?
“Oh man, I can definitely tell you there have been moments as a performer that I have been embarrassed by, just by the way I was presenting myself. I went through a phase there, right after 2010, I was just trying to find how to present myself differently from when I was performing with Alter Bridge and Slash, and I kinda had some missteps there. Poor wardrobe decisions! [Laughs]”
- Alter Bridge’s self-titled eighth studio album available to pre-order and is out on 9 January 2026 through Napalm Records.
