Myles Kennedy discussed opening for Creed in 1998, years before forming Alter Bridge with 3/4 of its members.
He told Long Distance, “When they were coming up the ranks – Creed – back in ’98, I was in a band called The Mayfield Four, and we opened for about four weeks in the States.
“But we weren’t really that close, I didn’t really know any of the guys that well. I had a brief interaction with the drummer, ‘Flip,’ and with Mark.
“I think the extent of Mark and I’s interaction was a fist bump at the cafeteria at the Hard Rock Hotel, and that was about it. And then in 2003, he reached out and asked if I’d be interested in possibly doing something, and I was really surprised, I was pretty shocked.
“If you would have told me back in 2004, as the thing started to take shape, that nearly 17 years we would still be doing it, we’d be looking at our seventh record coming up when it’s written, I would have been blown away!
“I’m really amazed that we’ve had the run that we have, and I think they probably would say the same thing.
“Because it’s the music business and your chances of establishing a new brand and having it take hold to where you can do it, and do it on a number of different levels – your chances are pretty slim, so it’s been pretty amazing journey.
“And I think that a lot of it, for us, the reason that we’ve had this luxury is that we take the songwriting so seriously. To us, it’s about the songs, we never really had a gimmick, we don’t have anything where none of us are really.
“With the exception of our bass player, Brian, we’re all kind of fashion-challenged, nobody’s really cool in that sense. But we focus on the songs, it’s about songs, and we love that art of songwriting so much.
“And I think that that’s maybe what helped us find our place, and Mark and I always agreed early on, it was about that balance of melody, and a certain concept with riffs, and trying to balance that in conjunction with a narrative that touches people and people can relate to. So we somehow landed on our feet.” Ultimate-Guitar transcribed his comments.
