Slash and Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy said he had to hide tears of emotion during his tryout sessions with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in 2008.
Kennedy was one of several singers who were auditioned following the Led Zeppelin reunion concert of the previous year. After Robert Plant refused to take part in any further activities, Page, Jones and drummer Jason Bonham attempted to forge ahead with a post-Zeppelin project, which didn’t happen.
In a recent interview with Linea Rock, Kennedy emphasized that the idea of him becoming part of Led Zeppelin was never on the table. “It was an opportunity to get in a room with three guys who just wanted to hang, play some music – and it just so happened that they were the guys who basically wrote the blueprint for everything I do,” he said.
You can listen to the interview below.
Kennedy added: “And you know what the best part was? Playing music was wonderful, but I got to tell them what they meant to me. Just as a fan I could say, ‘Hey … .’”
He said he had managed to keep quiet for the first half hour before he had to speak up. “I just said, ‘Look, I just got to tell you guys, I don’t know if I’m going to be here tomorrow or not, but thank you for writing the blueprint for all that we did,'” Kennedy recalled.
“And they just kind of looked at me, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s cool.’ … You could tell they probably hear it every single day, but they were very gracious. It was awesome.”
Kennedy said he’s wondered why he was chosen to try out but felt “honored” that it happened. “I think the two moments that stand out the most was playing ‘No Quarter’ – that’s one of my favorites,” he noted. “And later on, when I came back later that year, we did ‘The Rain Song’ … and that was something I’ll never forget. It was goose bumps. And I got a little teary. I kind of had to turn around like, ‘Don’t let the guys see that I’m getting emotional.’ But it was pretty heavy.”