Hitman talks to Myles Kennedy

Myles talks about his new album "The Art of Letting Go" and his new single "Say What You Will" plus answers Listeners questions..

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, what's going on? Itis hit Man with you and I've got
on the phone with me somebody Ihaven't talked to in a very long time,
but he is I consider a rocklegend. Miles Kennedy, Sir,
how are you today? I'm doinggreat? Thanks for thanks for having me
here. So you have a newalbum that's coming out on October eleventh,
The Art of Letting Go. Tellus about your solo album, dude.

(00:24):
Yeah, so, I uh decidedto make another one. You know,
it's been This is number three forme as far as solo records go.
And the first first solo record,you know, I put out Near the
Tiger that was more of an acousticrecord, and then the second one is
kind of he still had acoustic elements, but it was a little more rock.
You know. There's some some loudguitars and guitar solos, but with

(00:46):
this one, I just wanted itto be a you know, straight up
rock and roll record, and UHkind of put the acoustic guitars in the
in the closet for this. There'sa there's some there's some moments here and
there where I'm pull up, youknow, lean on the acoustic tab.
It but for the most part thisis Riprock and just wanted to have fun
and play a lot of guitar.So how did you come up with the

(01:07):
title The Art of Letting Go?You know, I'm just in the kind
of this place in life where I'mjust I'm learning how to you know,
just viewing life through a different prism, you know, and just learning the
art of not not I give ita damn, and not being reactive and
and just kind of finding my uhmy happy place. And uh, you

(01:33):
know, it's a it's a it'sa daily thing, and I'm learning as
I go. But I love it, and I feel like I wish I
had just started this process a lotat a lot younger age, because it's
it's been it's been good for me. Wow. Wow, we're talking with
Miles Kennedy. Uh. You knowlast year you actually came with alter Bridge,
Seven Dust and a couple of otherbands to Corpus Christy and put on

(01:56):
a hell of a show. Uhactually had people asking me how was that
to or what do you think ofthat tour? Well, it's great.
I mean, first of all,both both those bands are not only ferociously
good, but they're also really goodfriends. So anytime you can tour friends,
it's it's basically a traveling summer camp, you know, and so there's

(02:17):
you know, it's just it's it'sone of those things where you enjoy the
process a lot. But but itwas also, you know, to be
totally honest, it's both those bandsare so good. It's it's not always
easy to follow bands at back caliber, you know, right, which is
great because then everybody raises you haveto raise your game. You know.
It's like you you can't phone itin, You've got to go out there

(02:38):
and and you know, just justbleed for it. And so so that
was that was great. But firstand foremost, I think just the camaraderie
because there's such a mutual respect withall the bands. You know, everybody's
friends with each other and that inthat world. So that was a lot

(02:58):
of fun. So tell about thefirst single that's now top five most added
right now on rock radio, caledsay what you will? Tell us a
little bit about the single. Yeah, So it's you know, it's kind
of a like a proclamation to youknow, if you have internal voices or
external voices, you know that youknow you live that you deal with and

(03:24):
it's just learning how to to youknow, put that aside, and I
think that it's for me, it'sbeen it's it's been a lot of fun
having a song like that because it'slyrics always end up kind of be in
these mantras, you know, soso it's been empowering in that sense.
And then yeah, the riff,the main where where the the whole thing

(03:47):
kind of blossomed from was that thatintro riff which I was just in an
hotel, was touring with alter Bridgeand I was in a hotel room and
and stumbled on stumbled on it andwas like, oh, that's that's that's
going to be an important one.So pleased with how it turned out,
and the fact that to hear yousay that that it's you know, it's
been added and it's people seem tobe liking it. So that's a songwriter
as a songwriter that it's always themusic to my ears. Yeah, yeah,

(04:11):
it's it's every time you come outwith some great stuff, it's it's
always, I swear to God ismagic. It's good you. You always
put out great albums all the time. Next year you're going to be going
out on a big the Art ofLetting Go us candidate tour with Tim Montana.
How are you looking? Are youlooking forward to that big tour?
I am. I'm you know,I'm we later on this year, we're

(04:31):
going to Europe and starting there andthen well we'll pick up and we'll do
the holidays and then we'll we'll starthere in mid January in the United States.
And yeah, I'm really excited.I mean, you know, it's
funny with the solo endeavor, it'sreally become an excuse to do two things.
To play a lot of guitar becauseit's I do lean heavily on guitar,

(04:55):
playing a lot of guitar solos,which I love to do, and
and it also is an excuse hangingout with my friend friends, you know,
with Tim and z my rhythm sectionwith There's once again. It's just
a great, a great relationship.You know, Zee and I have been
playing together now off and on sincelike the mid eighties when we were kids
playing bars and then going to highschool the next day. So it's you
know, I getting to reconnect withZa is always great. And then Tim

(05:18):
is a man who wears many hats, you know, not only does he
play bass on these records, buthe also manages my solo stuff and he
manages alter Bridge, and he's atrue renaissance man. So so it's just
a good you know, it's it'sit's it'll be good to get back in
the saddle and take this this circusout on the road. We're talking with

(05:38):
Miles Kennedy. He's got a newalbum coming out on October eleventh, the
Art of Letting Go. And Iwent on Facebook and I said, look,
I'm going to be talking with MilesKennedy. Does anybody have any questions?
And of course a lot of peoplecame back with some interesting questions that
I thought I would ask you.One of them actually actually goes with this
album. That says, how doesthis album differ from your last solo album?

(05:59):
Well, I think one of thethings is thematically, you know,
this is the last solo record wasreally informed by kind of the state of
the world and everything that was happening. It was like a snapshot in time.
And with this record, it's reallyjust a collection of various, you
know, various songs, but there'sno real common theme that runs throughout it,

(06:20):
which I thought was important for thisrecord because not only on the last
record, but also on the firstrecord, on the Ear of the Tiger,
and that was a concept record andit told a story, and so
I really wanted this one just tobeat kind of pieces put together. But
more important, it's just the soundof it. I think that's the thing
that really defines is more so thananything. It is a it's a rock

(06:42):
and roll record, right you startto finish. That's cool. You know
a couple of other ones here thereThere are some funny ones and then there
are some ones that I didn't evenknow about. One of one of your
fans asked, would you ever getback together with the Mayfield Four. Well,
you know, it's funny because that'sone of I love about playing in
the solo realms, playing with Zia, who was also in the Mayfield for

(07:04):
so it's kind of like he gothalf me as far as it is,
and we actually pull We actually dosome of the Sometimes we'll we'll play a
few of the Mayfield four songs inthe set just it will be like acoustic
versions. So you know, itkind of scratches that itch for me,
which is which is nice interer zyas well. Okay, Jax asks,

(07:28):
uh, what's his secret to keepingsuch pristine vocals? His stuff with Slash
featuring Mals Kennedy and the Conspirators wasotherworldly. Wow, that's really nice.
I you know, for me,it's just, uh, I try to
be really careful. You know,I don't I don't drink much at all

(07:48):
at this point, I don't.I don't. I don't party, and
so I'm always very aware of tryingto maintain my vocal chords. Do warm
ups, some will do warm downs. You know. I kind of studied
vocal technique a little bit with areally great vocal coach way back in the

(08:09):
day, and that's that has reallybeen helpful. You know, he kind
of gave me the keys to theto the castle with the stuff he showed
me. And that's you know,twenty five years in, I'm still grateful
that I ran into him. Wow, that's that's cool. Here's a funny
one for you. A female listenerasked, how many people have told you
you look like Kevin Bacon. Ihear it every day, So at this

(08:31):
point thousands, ever since ever sinceFootloothz came out, you know, the
next day came out, or thatweekend or whatever, and then it was
like, you look like the guysin Footlooths. You know. So it's
been going on for a long time. Yeah, well they brought it up
on Facebook. They wanted me toask you that question, So I thought
that was actually kind of cool.You know, you've worked with You've worked

(08:52):
with a lot of great guitarists,band members. Like you said, it's
a camarderie. It's where you guysare all together. There is there someone
that you have yet to work withthat you would love to work with?
Oh man, that's a good question. There's so many people out there that
I would love to just create somethingwith at some point. I mean,

(09:16):
you know, I would have tosay since my very first musical ministers.
A lot of people I bring thisup and they're like really, they sound
they seem surprised. But for me, it's logical because my first musical memory
as a child was seeing Stevie Wonderon Sesame Street and I was so captivated
and in a lot of ways,I started singing to some degree because of

(09:37):
how much I love Stevie Wonder.So Stevie Wonder would be on the top
of the list. Wow, somethingspecial that guy. Yeah, I think
he's just a genius. You know. I remember that when Stevie Wonder was
on Sesame Street. I do rememberthat that that was actually, Yeah,
that's right. That's a great memory. Wow, that was my first.
That was like such an important likeI remember just being just mesmerized. Yeah,

(10:01):
that was a great that was Thatwas my favorite to Sesame Street for
sure. Wow, that's a prettythat's actually a great memory. Is there
a new band? Is there aband that's out there right now that's your
favorite that that you're listening to onthe radio or you listen to on your
off time. Oh man, there'sa lot of good stuff out there.

(10:22):
I would have to say, Well, there's this band we tour and actually
opened the tour when we went outlast year with with Mammoth and Seven Dust.
It's a band called m j T. And there these three guys I
met, uh they were they werea guy named Tash is out with Slash

(10:43):
right now. He's doing Slashes inhis blues Coash is great, and but
he had this backing band with thesethree guys, and we got to be
friends. And so they sent mesome stuff they did on SoundCloud, you
know, and I was just like, I didn't know what this is going
to be. He was very hewas wasn't with Tash, and I was
just blown away. And so we'vedeveloped the friendship and they're with The music

(11:05):
they make is some of my Ijust constantly go back to it. Yeah,
they're just they're an incredible young band. Yeah. Well, the two
of my favorites that are right now, of course is Mammoth Mammoth WVH.
Yes, they just he blows meout of the water. Every time I
see him live. I've seen himnow twice, and he blows me out

(11:26):
of the water. Another band wasBear Tooth. Bear Tooth just yeah,
I like Tooth. They're so good. It's it's an and they're the nicest
guys I've ever met. So it'slike, yeah, those are the two
bands that just blow me away.I think they're so cool. Wow,
we're talking with Miles Kennedy. Iagree. Yeah, we're talking with Miles
Kennedy right now. And you know, of course, the new album comes

(11:48):
out October eleventh. His new singlesSay What You Will is out now.
I'm going to ask you one lastquestion, uh concern And I tell this
to everybody, every single person Iinterview people in this business. I know.
You know, if you've been toCorpus Christy, it's a rock town.
There's a lot of great up andcoming rock bands that are coming out
of South Texas right now. Whatadvice can you give to, you know,

(12:11):
local rock bands to try to takeit to the next level. I
think the you know, it's funny. I was just I was just talking
about this with another interview, andthere's a there was a movie that I
saw when I was like a teenager, and it's called Field of Dreams,
and the whole premise of this movieis, you know, the main character
starts building this baseball field in themiddle of the cornfield, like everyone thought

(12:33):
he was crazy, but it turnsout it was all for a reason and
it's it's a wonderful film. Butbasically, the kind of manstra of the
film is if you build it,they will come. And I'm kind of,
you know, for me and theway life has turned out, I
feel like, if you if youwork on something and you believe in it
and it's authentic and it's honest andit's good, you know, and you

(12:56):
put in the time, you putin your ten thousand hours, if you
build it, they will come andI've seen that happen where other humans see
that, they recognize that and theywant to experience it. So I would
just say, you know, stickto your guns and put your head down,
work hard, and if you believein yourself and you believe in what
you're creating, you might be surprisedat how many people will jump on board

(13:18):
with that. Wow. Well,dude, I'm going to go ahead and
let you go. I think myfifteen minutes are up. But I am
so proud of you. You've doneso do you you you? I am
one of your big fans now sincethe very beginning, and a lot of
hope you have. It just takesyou to another level and you and you,

(13:39):
it's like I'm waiting to see yoube inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame one of these days. Wow. And uh my mom would
love that. Yeah. You You'reYou're a rock legend status to me,
dude, and I am so proudof you and I look forward to to
the new album and looking forward toseeing you out in the road again.

(14:00):
Dude. Wow. Man, Wellthat was that was really really kind to
you. I appreciate that. Iappreciate you. Thank you so much for
your time,