The Great Beyond

AS MYLES KENNEDY’S SOLO CAREER FINALLY TAKES FLIGHT, WE MEET HIM ON THE ROAD TO FIND OUT HOW THE ALTER BRIDGE MAINMAN’S CHILDHOOD TRAGEDY INFLUENCED THE TRIUMPH OF HIS NEW ACOUSTIC CHAPTER

- Rob Laing

It’s hard not to believe in the idea of fate when Myles Kennedy explains to us how his new album was named. In a rare break from the stage and studio that occupies so much of his time with Alter Bridge and his band with Slash, he was mowing the lawn when the seed of a song came from nowhere…

“The melody came into my head for Year Of The Tiger,” recalls Myles, “and I remembered I recorded it onto my phone and then I put it away for a while. But it kept popping back in my head, and I didn’t even know what Year Of The Tiger meant then – I had no idea. So I looked up and discovered, low and behold, it was the year my father passed away. And it almost felt like it was the universe instructing me that now was the time to write this record.”

That year was 1974 and Myles was just four when his father Richard died after refusing medical treatment because of his Christian Science beliefs. His loss and the aftermath for Myles, his mother and brother are tackled head on with the song Year Of The Tiger and the album of the same name.

“I tried to touch on this before but for a number of reasons, I could never go there,” admits Myles. “It’s a painful subject but the idea of loss and death is a theme that runs through many of the lyrics I’ve been involved writing. It happened at such a young age it set the stage for the well I would continuously draw from. But as far as devoting an entire record to this specific event, I just could never pull it off before. It felt like it was the right time, and here we are.”