Myles Kennedy has been working on solo material over the past month, he says in a new interview posted on his official Web site. The only other project on the Alter Bridge singer's slate, he says, is eventually developing a new album with his band.
Absent from his announced plans is any mention of the obvious. Both Kennedy and his interviewer manage to sidestep any mention of the rumors that he was under consideration for a new band featuring two of Led Zeppelin's original members -- Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones -- and Jason Bonham, the son of original Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.
Kennedy says he has been crafting music that would not suit his band Alter Bridge because it "isn't aggressive" enough for that outlet. His solo work, he says, is more of the "singer/songwriter" vein, and he's been spending a lot of time on it since Alter Bridge completed its tour in December.
"I basically got home from the European tour and then the next day I was in the studio," Kennedy says in the interview. He indicates he has been working on this new material alone, an approach he says is "a great way of challenging myself to learn to trust by instincts," although he "still had rather have a band."
Sources last year indicated that Kennedy had been rehearsing with Page, Jones and Bonham last year and was prepared to sing on a tour and album with them. Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider revealed in October he'd heard Kennedy would be tapped for activity in 2009 as long as a Led Zeppelin tour with Robert Plant wouldn't trump their plans.
Further, a confidential source in November told LedZeppelinNews.com that Page and Jones got a close-up look at Kennedy's band in action when they attended an Alter Bridge concert in London that was to be filmed for a DVD. Kennedy implies in his interview that the band postponed filming until toward the end of the tour because the London show was too early in on the tour for all of the band to be "firing on all cylinders." If that's the case, then perhaps Page and Jones were underwhelmed with Kennedy and just didn't have the patience.
That assumption jibes with the statement on Wednesday, by Page manager Peter Mensch, that Page, Jones and Bonham "tried out a few singers, but no one worked out."
Some fans will undoubtedly see this week as the official passing of the Gary Cherone era in Led Zeppelin's history. They breathe a sigh of relief today.
Even more sadly, since today is Page's 65th birthday -- the age currently viewed in countries including United States as the retirement age -- is the completion of that quote from Page's manager on any possibility of Page, Jones and Bonham continuing to work together in any capacity:
"That was it. The whole thing is completely over now. There are absolutely no plans for them to continue. Zero. Frankly, I wish everybody would stop talking about it."
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