Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy launches a U.S. tour Friday in Joliet, Illinois, in support of his latest solo album, The Art of Letting Go. Now that he's put out three solo records, Kennedy tells ABC Audio he feels he can more comfortably fill a whole set with just his own material.
"The beauty now that we've got three records to pull from is I won't have to put in as many covers and songs from previous other bands and other projects," Kennedy shares. "We're gonna lean heavily on these three albums."
For the shows, Kennedy is bringing out his power trio lineup, which he says is "very challenging for me since I'm playing the guitar and singing and I don't have another guitar player."
"It's a pressure gig, but in a good way," he adds.
The Art of Letting Go follows in the electric footsteps of 2021's The Ides of March after Kennedy initially launched his solo career with 2018's acoustic-driven Year of the Tiger. As his solo material continues down a more amplified path, Kennedy's reworked the Year of the Tiger songs for the live environment.
"A lot of times we'll get put on festivals where it's, like, rock festivals and playing acoustic versions of songs [isn't] gonna go over well," Kennedy says. "So, yeah, we changed the arrangements with that first record in particular and rock the tunes out."
In fact, the idea of possibly recording the new arrangements of Year of the Tiger songs influenced his approach to The Art of Letting Go.
"What if we just made a whole new record where we wouldn't have to change it," Kennedy recalls thinking. "And the way it's recorded, the way it's documented is the way it will inevitably be when we play it live."