Talk to a group of rock music fans about the best bands around today and bring up Alter Bridge; chances are most of them would simply term it as Creed with a replacement front man. One of the most ignorant and appalling simplifications in the rock n roll scene today! With Mark Tremonti free to guide the bands musical direction, Scott Phillips with his act cleaned up, Brian Marshal back and happier than he was with Creed, and a front man who along with his incredible guitar skills can soar through an insanely broad vocal range too;Alter Bridge, musically, is one of the best rock acts around. But it is also sadly one of the most underrated bands of today, which is a pity since it is a band with two incredible albums and a stellar live performance to boot.

Today The Backdoor brings you some of the lesser known facts about Alter Bridge’s extraordinarily talented front man Myles Kennedy.

Has toured with Creed prior to forming Alter Bridge

Born on the 27^th of November 1969, Myles Kennedy started his musical career growing up on a farm in Spokane Washington. A highly accomplished axe man that can fluidly interweave elements of jazz, blues and rock music in his playing; he was a part of several fusion bands such as Cosmic dust and Citizen Swing as a vocalist cum guitarist. But musically his biggest leap was in forming ‘The Mayfield Four’ a band whose sound was described quite illustriously as ‘Jeff Buckley meets Sound Garden on a Zeppelin tribute night’. Despite being offered a record deal by Epic Records and putting out two albums that received high acclaim by critics; The Mayfield Four surprisingly failed to chart. But the fact that they were invited to open for bands like Creed, Fuel, Big Wreck and Stabbing Westward stand testament to the bands musical prowess. It was also while touring with Creed that Kennedy developed a friendship with Mark Tremonti, which would eventually lead to him being invited to front Alter Bridge.

Appeared in the movie Rock Star

Myles made a cameo appearance in the 2001 movie “Rock Star” as a Steel Dragon fanatic fan nicknamed ‘Thor’. In one of the movies final scenes fictional band Steel Dragon’s front man Chris ‘Izzy’ Cole (Played by Mark Wahlberg) walks off stage handing over the mike to ‘Thor’ who carries on the rest of the performance. Kennedy also supplied the singing voice for his character; no mean feat considering the soaring range of the movies hit song ‘Stand Up and Shout’.

Myles scene in Rock Star

His vocal range spans an impressive four octaves.

The Mayfield Four’s second full length album Second Skin is a record that brilliantly showcases Myles’ unearthly vocal brilliance and raw power. Nowhere more so than in the track Summer Girl. An achingly beautiful rock ballad that starts off with just a guitar and the soft whispers of Myles’ hauntingly beautiful voice; it soars mid song into a full blown heavy chorus in which Myles hits an insanely high note which he  holds for an amazing 22, that’s right twenty two seconds! He also holds a record for the longest note streak in one breath at an incredible 31 seconds in the Alter Bridge second album’s tile song Black Bird.

Was invited to be a part of Slash and Zeppelin’s musical projects

Soon after The Mayfield Four disbanded Myles received many offers from the rock industries giants to be a part of their projects; he turned down an offer from Slash to join Velvet Revolver as their front man, but two years later decided to join Mark Tremonti in forming Alter Bridge. According to Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider it was rumored that he was invited by the members of Led Zeppelin to replace Robert Plant as their front man for the reunion tour that sadly, never materialized. The fact that he was Zep’s first choice in replacing the ‘prince of rock’ Robert Plant is a glowing tribute to Myles’ vocal brilliance. It is reported that he enjoyed several Jam sessions with Zeppelins Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham.

He suffers from Tinnitus

Myles also suffers from a hearing impairment called Tinnitus, a condition where in the absence of external noises the person afflicted hears a continual buzzing or ringing inside their head.  This condition was one of the main reasons that he turned down Slash’s offer to join Velvet Revolver, and has stated in interviews that he feared his tinnitus would end his musical career. Myles has since overcome this difficulty and says that he is managing to deal with the condition and says it is typical for someone who has been in the rock industry for as long as he has.

A list of famous individuals that suffer from tinnitus

So for those of you that do not let your musical tastes be influenced by the 4 minute time limits of commercial radio, and appreciate great music that is laced with technique heart and soul; check out Alter Bridge’s last album Black Bird. And if you like me are converted to Alter Bridge’s music, we all have Myles’ solo album that will be recorded during the Creed reunion tour to look forward to.