“It’s a departure from the first two records. I wanted to rock again,” says songwriter / guitarist / vocalist Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge, Slash & The Conspirators), talking about his breathtaking third solo album The Art Of Letting Go, due October 11, 2024 via Napalm Records.

Whereas Year Of The Tiger, released in 2018, was an unplugged, acoustic affair, and The Ides Of March, released in 2021, enveloped a roots-based, folk-like Americana vibe, The Art Of Letting Go is full-fledged, riff-based hard rock. Electric guitars and amplifiers deliver ten exceptional tracks.  

Before exploring the music found within The Art Of Letting Go, we begin with the striking cover art. There’s so much going on in this image. Amongst the skulls, snakes, eyeballs, flowers, and octopus is a hidden door that’s slightly ajar. “My manager (and bass player) Tim (Tournier) stumbled onto the artist,” explains Myles. “His name’s Riza Peker. Tim found him online and really liked the images he created. So, we commissioned him to integrate these various elements into the style that he has. Obviously, it’s a pretty dense style. I wanted something to touch on my past; the things I’ve been a part of. Elements like the octopus, you know I have the octopus tattoo. I definitely have an affinity for octopuses, or octopi. But the door, that is actually from the first Mayfield Four record. Then you find other images, like the owl, from The Ides Of March. You’ve got the skeleton of the tiger from Year Of The Tiger. I wanted to incorporate a lot of those images to convey this transitory nature of life; how things are constantly changing. I felt that image would capture that really nicely.”

Going one step further, Myles reveals how the artwork ties in with the album title, The Art Of Letting Go. “I think it’s coming to terms with that transitory nature of life, especially the longer I’m on this planet, coming to certain realizations. I’ve really been trying to make peace with a lot of things. The Art Of Letting Go certainly sums that up. I’ve discovered a lot of eastern philosophies in the last decade or so, and that’s really been a major foundation for me as far as how I frame the world and the way I look at things. The things I’ve got from those elements are learning to be present and learning to go with the flow. ‘Be like water,’ as Bruce Lee once said. A lot of these things which have had a profound effect on me. I felt like that image kind of captures some of those concepts.”

Delving into the songs found on The Art Of Letting Go, we start with “Behind The Veil”. That track is absolutely mesmerizing. The solo section completely immerses the listener, taking them away from everything else. “Oh man, well thank you. That’s probably my favorite one on the record,” admits Myles. “It was a track that, I knew once I stumbled onto the riff, it was going to be important to me. It had a feel and a certain vibe that manifested in that riff. And it was going to allow me to play a lot of guitar; which in a lot of ways, these solo records have become an excuse to do. From a lyrical standpoint, it’s kind of dark. It’s kind of heavy. You can almost look at it like someone who realizes they made a deal with the devil, and just kind of living with that realization. It has a lot of gravity to it. But the solo section was a lot of fun. It was essentially something that, I was trying to channel my inner Billy Gibbons, and the riff as well. It’s definitely a tip of the hat to a lot of the bluesier players that I grew up listening to.”

Solo albums are usually seen as a vehicle for music that wouldn’t fit within the parameters of an artist’s main band. I don’t see Myles as having a main band. To me, Alter Bridge, Slash & The Conspirators, and Myles Kennedy are all on a level playing field and equally important. That being said, “Say What You Will” sounds like a perfect SMKC song. Did you present that to Slash prior to putting it on The Art Of Letting Go? “I did not,” answers Myles. “And what’s fascinating to me is you are the first person who’s mentioned that. When the song was finished, I remember thinking, ‘Could that have fit in an SMKC realm?’ So, I actually appreciate you conveying that to me, cause I was beginning to think that my filter was just completely off-base. 

“But I didn’t because when it was written, until it was completed with the production and everything, I was more Mark Knopfler inspired. And when the main riff came in after the intro riff, I was trying to channel, I don’t know, it was almost like Smashing Pumpkins meets Prince, or something. But when we finished the song, I heard the mix back, and I think for me personally, it was when they added the cowbell. I was like, ‘Oh yeah! That could totally…’. Then I really could hear the possibility that it could have worked in that world. But I didn’t submit it to him, just mainly because it’s a different process when we write. He’s brilliant! He’s got so much stuff. So many ideas, so many riffs and chord progressions that I never present him with riffs, cause I feel like, he’s got that covered. You could say the same with Alter Bridge, Mark (Tremonti, guitarist) is equally as prolific. We just have a different writing approach there where I do bring in riffs and ideas. So that’s kind of how it all played out. It’s cool that you heard that.”

Recorded at Studio Barbarosa in Orlando, Florida with producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette, The Art Of Letting Go is the first album to feature the new Myles Kennedy signature guitar, manufactured by PRS. “Well, technically the first one that once it was into production. On the last Alter Bridge record, on Pawns & Kings (released in 2022), I was using a prototype. But yeah, this record is, actually what you hear is a guitar I took right out of the box. I know that sounds like a sales pitch, but what happened was, we had all of our other – a lot of my other guitars were in various storage facilities. So, I needed some instruments. I had a few in a box that were, I think, going to be sent to… I forget how it came to be, but they were basically just off the line. And the guitars I play, people think, ‘Oh, you get those from the custom shop.’ No, these are just straight off the line, right out of the box. What you hear is a black one, it’s the one I played on almost the entire record. I used that with one amp. I use a Diezel Paul amp and kept it really simple this time around. I hope people enjoy it. It was fun to put together. I got this from a tech of mine, who used to sign his – he borrowed a quote from, I don’t know who said it? But the quote he would always sign the end of his emails with was, ‘The power of the riff compels me.’ That always stuck with me, cause riffs are just so fun. There’s something about riff-based music… it still gets me off as much as the first time I heard; the first riff I ever heard was ‘Smoke On The Water’ (by Deep Purple) when I was a kid. I just love riffs!”

[Note: The phrase, ‘The power of the riff compels me,’ is spoken at the beginning of a song called “The Seed”, by a band named Down, found on their second album, released in 2002.]

“Eternal Lullaby” is an interesting song title as eternal means forever, yet a lullaby is a gentle song you sing to a baby to make them fall asleep. Once you’re out of diapers, you don’t hear any more lullabies. “That’s funny! I never thought about that,” laughs Myles. “There’s a bit of a contradiction there. I think I just liked the words. Sometimes, as writers, you kind of take that creative license. To me, lullaby is synonymous with song. And eternal, obviously carries on. It’s a song that was written, I want to say around 2018. That’s one of the only ones that – one of two songs that were written a few years ago, on this record. Other than that, everything else was written last year. It was a song I had sitting around, and it’s a tribute to the people who – the trailblazers, musically, who essentially kind of helped write the blueprint for the music that so many of us are just trying to carry on. And it’s a tribute really to the ones who passed away, who we’ve lost. I felt it was really a necessary thing for me to say, to convey my gratitude towards the people, who I like to look at as the giants whose shoulders we continue to stand on and create this form of music.”

Lyrically, “Eternal Lullaby” is super heavy, especially the line, “I can’t pretend what you did didn’t hurt. No, I can’t pretend it doesn’t break my heart.” That’s something a lot of people will be able to apply to their own personal lives and situations. It’s a far cry from “Rock-a-Bye Baby” or “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. “Yeah, it’s got some weight. That was a hard one to write. I think that as with, not all songs but a lot of songs, you kind of channel so much into it, and you work through so much throughout the process. That song had some real pivotal points for me, as far as wanting to convey these things.”

Myles has released two very different videos from The Art Of Letting Go. One for “Say What You Will”, and the other being “Miss You When You’re Gone”. “Say What You Will” has been viewed over 1.6 million times in three months! “Well, my mom, she watches the video over and over,” jokes Myles. “I’m like, mom, I’ll give you a dollar for every time you watch this. I couldn’t afford that at this point. But yeah, it really was fun! When Tim Tournier, my manager and I, and were riffing on what this would be, we both agreed we didn’t want it to be too serious; cause the lyric is pretty intense. We wanted it to have a bit of a… I don’t want to say light-hearted, but we just didn’t want it to have the gravity it could have had. So, when we decided what it was going to be, the main character was pivotal. 

“We both agreed, within ten seconds, that it was going to be his daughter, Mara. We knew she was perfect for it. She’s not an actress, she’s never acted a day in her life. But we both just knew that her passion for music was palpable. I remember watching her stand on the side of the stage when we were on tour with Mammoth last year, just watching her with her fists in the air, rocking out, banging her head. I was like, my gosh. This kid’s in it to win it. She loves music. So, we knew she would be perfect. And the video, in a lot of ways, is kind of like… the character she plays, to some degree, was the character I was when I was a kid. I didn’t always fit in. I was a late bloomer; I couldn’t keep up with my peers. I was awkward. Music was my salvation. That’s how I found my purpose in a lot of ways. So, I feel this video does a good job of conveying that same theme.”

Flipping over to the animated video for “Miss You When You’re Gone”, created by Oliver Jones. It tells the story of a girl who moves into a house and befriends a ghost that lives there. Do you believe in ghosts, Myles? “Oh, good question. I, oh man… I’m kind of a pessimistic character. I don’t typically believe in a lot of things; although I’m up for the UFO concepts. But I will say, I’ve had a few things in my life that have maybe tweaked my perception there as far as ghosts go. There have been just a handful of things where I’m like, what was that? My wife and I jokingly refer to – we live in this place that we’ve lived in now for nearly a decade. The people who had it before us, they built the home, and the family lived here for decades and decades. Long story short, one night in particular, I could have sworn, I thought I saw a dog run across our hall. It totally freaked me out! But to be fair, I think it was just one of those things where sometimes you have something in the corner of your eye. I was brushing my teeth, and I thought I saw something shoot down the hall. I thought it was our little dog, and he was supposed to be in this other room. But somehow, he escaped; that’s what I thought. But then I went and checked after I brushed my teeth, and there he was the whole time. I don’t know what I saw. It was probably just an eye booger, but anything’s possible.”

“Nothing More To Gain”, the second single from The Art Of Letting Go, received the lyric video treatment. There’s a line in that song which is certainly ear-catching. That being, “A ravenous heart is one you must fight to tame.” Myles shares his inspiration. “I think that’s just part of my quest to try and… how do I articulate this? I just came to realize that a lot of my life was just consuming. I kind of have a collector instinct – collecting guitars and collecting whatever. I think some of it’s just an inherited trait; I have other family members who do the same thing. But I came to realize that the things I was accumulating were starting to just own me. I was just like, why am I doing this? I don’t need any more stuff. So, it was the idea of trying to tame that side of me, and just learn to be happy just being present, and not needing another dopamine rush off another object, or whatever it is I thought if I acquired it might bring me joy. That’s what that line means to me. I’m trying to integrate more of a minimalist approach as I get older.”

(Photo credit: Chuck Brueckmann)