Myles Kennedy reveals the greatest live performance he's ever witnessed
"It was something I'll never, ever forget"
Last updated 15th May 2021
Myles Kennedy has told Planet Rock that seeing the late-great Jeff Buckley play ‘Grace’ in Seattle 26 years ago was the single greatest live performance he’s ever witnessed.
To celebrate the release of his second solo album ‘The Ides of March’ later this week, Myles Kennedy was the very special guest on My Planet Rocks with Wyatt last night (9th May).
One of the songs Myles picked to be played during the show was ‘Grace’ - the title track to Jeff Buckley’s first and only studio album from 1994. Buckley tragically drowned while swimming in Wolf River Harbor, Tennessee in May 1997 less than three years after the record’s release.
Myles told Wyatt that seeing the late singer at the ultra-intimate King Cat Theater in Seattle in 1995 was nothing short of a transcendental experience and one that he’ll never forget.
He explained: “I got to see him perform that in ’95 at a little theatre in Seattle and it was…. you know, music has a profound effect on people. It gives you goosebumps, sometimes you’ll tear up.
“But what I experienced as he played that song (‘Grace’) especially at the end when he was doing the ‘wait in the fire, wait in the fire…’ then he goes higher and higher and all that was it was like, I don’t even know how to describe it. It was almost like an outer (sic) body experience that he was giving to everyone in the venue. There was probably only 500 people in the venue. But it was just this wave of intensity that he was able to just throw a blanket over this audience.
“It was something I’ll never, ever forget. When I think of all the live performances I’ve ever seen that moment was probably the zenith. It was amazing.”
In December 2019, Myles Kennedy covered Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ with Jeff Buckley's famous Fender Telecaster at L'Olympia in Paris.
Elsewhere during the My Planet Rocks interview, Myles revealed that he’s suffering from wrist problems since he started recording ‘The Ides of March’.
However, Myles explained that knowing that Tony Iommi – who lost the tips of two fingers in a factory accident as a teenager – managed to play on despite his hand injury really inspired him.
“I’m telling you first, this is like the scoop right here – but truthfully as I was making ‘The Ides of March’, I was having some hand and some wrist issues and we’re trying to get it figured out. It’s a lot of overuse and whatnot,” Myles said.
“But I remember thinking about some of those guys that had these issues and would always work around it and made some of the best music, and that’s so inspiring. It’s like ‘oh, my hand hurts’, it’s like ‘C’mom dude!’ Tony Iommi made some of the greatest albums of all time’ (following his hand injury). So, it’s always inspiring to hear those stories.”
You can listen to Myles Kennedy’s full interview for the next seven days below where he also discusses juggling his solo career with Alter Bridge and Slash, how the global lockdown came at just the right time for him, his future plans and much more. Alongside the aforementioned Jeff Buckley, Myles picked songs from Living Colour and Stevie Wonder.
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