Myles Kennedy on the making of Alter Bridge's Blackbird.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:05 Hey, I'm Miles Kennedy from Alter Bridge.
00:08 [MUSIC]
00:18 Blackbird, which has become a fan favorite,
00:25 one of probably my favorite song that we have in the Alter Bridge catalog.
00:31 At least the song with the most meaning.
00:34 I think it's a very powerful song that resonates with myself and a lot of others.
00:39 [MUSIC]
00:49 [MUSIC]
00:59 I had a friend, his name was Mark Morris.
01:04 He owned his own music guitar shop in my town, Spokane, Washington.
01:09 And Mark was a great guy.
01:11 He sold me my very first guitar when I was a kid.
01:15 And we just kept in touch.
01:19 And unfortunately, he got sick.
01:20 It was a few months of struggle for him and his family.
01:24 When I got the news that he passed away, the lyric came pretty quickly.
01:30 It was one of those very inspired moments,
01:33 very honest moments that you just kind of wait to channel as a songwriter.
01:38 And so that's how Blackbird was born.
01:43 [MUSIC]
01:53 The anatomy of Blackbird, if I can remember back that far,
01:56 this has been almost ten years.
01:58 Mark had the initial verse.
02:01 I believe he had the verse guitar part and the verse melody part.
02:06 What was challenging was coming up with a chorus.
02:10 We could not find a chorus forever.
02:13 I think we had the heavy guitar part that kicked in after his verse part,
02:18 and that was something I came up with.
02:21 It has a very Pink Floyd vibe.
02:23 In fact, there's quite a bit of Pink Floyd influence on that song,
02:27 at least from where I was coming from.
02:29 The guitar solo that I played, the first one,
02:34 it was definitely Gilmore inspired.
02:36 [MUSIC]
02:46 I'll never forget, we recorded a real rough version of it, and
02:59 I had it on my laptop.
03:01 And I was staying at Mark's house at the time, and he came in,
03:05 he was like, let's check out how it sounds.
03:08 So we have a little perspective now, we've been away from it for a few hours.
03:11 And I remember we sat there and listened to it, and we looked at each other and
03:15 we're like, wow, okay, as songwriters,
03:20 these are the moments you dream of.
03:24 These are the moments that makes all of the searching and
03:27 soul searching more than worthwhile.
03:30 And that was a great moment for both of us.
03:35 [MUSIC]
03:45 As far as how difficult it can be to sing a song like that because of the profound
03:59 intensity of the song, there's some nights when it's a real challenge.
04:04 Because if you immerse yourself in the lyric and
04:07 those memories all flood back, it can sting a little bit.
04:15 So I remember one night, actually, we were playing Wembley Arena, and
04:20 another friend who had recently passed away,
04:27 Ashley, a photographer friend of ours, and his wife was standing on the side of
04:32 the stage, and she knew what that song meant and the meaning of that song.
04:36 So having her there and performing that,
04:38 that was a real challenge to get through.
04:42 But that's the thing about music, if it's that honest and
04:49 the emotions are that, I guess, pure, that should happen.
04:54 I mean, that's what art should do.
04:56 It should resonate with you like that, and it should create some real
05:00 moments of introspection and a tribute to my friends.
05:10 And so yeah, that sums that up.
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