“Someone once said to me, ‘Why do you make solo records?’ And it’s like, ‘So I can play solos!’” Myles Kennedy on the blues-rock hero who shaped the way he plays, why he’s an accidental frontman, and what the power of the riff made him do

Myles Kennedy stands in front of a rusted orange container. He wears a black leather jacket and has his signature PRS guitar.

“I’ve been so fortunate with my career,” Myles Kennedy says, and indeed, between fronting Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, and singing and playing guitar alongside Mark Tremonti in Alter Bridge, Kennedy is, to borrow a Conspirators album title, living the dream.

But even while having his hands full with two projects, he continues, “As a writer, I can never totally power down. I always have the antenna up in case something comes along.” He laughs. “It’s like being a doctor on call.”