A couple of years ago, Myles Kennedy turned to Jim Carrey for some life-changing wisdom. The mercurial Hollywood star, a "genius" in Kennedy's eyes, had announced his retirement from acting, when he said this: "I have enough. I've done enough.
I am enough." For the Alter Bridge frontman, a lifelong worrier learning to manage his anxieties, it parted a lot of internal clouds.
"When I heard him say that, it was like: 'Wow, there's somebody who's figured it out,"" Kennedy says now. "It's like, just be here, just be grateful for what you have, let go of all that other stuff." In a strange way, there's something in Kennedy's gentle, sharp-cheekboned look - brightened easily with a wide smile that's not a million miles from Carrey. The Mask one moment, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind the next.
Committed performers coming to terms with fearsome inner critics.
For Kennedy that process - coupled with a nod to Bruce Lee's 'be like water' philosophy - comes out in his third solo album The Art Of Letting Go.
"He [Carrey] has got versatility as an actor, as a comedian," Kennedy enthuses. "That's why he's one of the all-time greats, in my opinion, because he's able to cover so many different bases. I aspire to that. I mean, I don't feel like I'm nearly at his level in what I do, but I work at it, and I like to explore different sounds and do different things." If Kennedy's first two, more acoustic-based, solo records - 2018's Year Of The Tiger and 2021's Ides Of March - were about facing his personal demons, The Art Of Letting Go is the sound of him releasing those demons.
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