Myles Kennedy has made no secret over the years that the late Jeff Buckley is one of his biggest musical heroes.
Speaking to MusicRadar in January, the Alter Bridge frontman placed Buckley, alongside Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Stevie Wonder and Ella Fitzgerald on the pantheon of his biggest influences.
“The vocalists I looked to would have been Stevie Wonder, that was probably the very first one, and then Jeff Buckley was a massive influence,” he said, emphasis on massive interviewee’s own. “Jeff Buckley and Thom Yorke, together in the ‘90s, were big influences on me. And as the years have gone on – this is going to sound kind of interesting – I love female singers, and there’s just something about Ella Fitzgerald, and I could listen to her forever.”
Article continues belowSo in 2019, when Kennedy got the opportunity to perform a cover of Buckley’s Hallelujah, when Alter Bridge played L’Olympia in Paris, using Buckley’s modded 1983 Fender Telecaster, it was officially a big deal. It was the first time the Tele had been played in public since Buckley’s death in 1997. Matt Lucas, of legendary Parisian vintage gear emporium, Matt’s Guitar Store, lent Kennedy it for the occasion.
And in a recent interview with Guitarist, Kennedy admits that it the prospect brought him out in a cold sweat. Sometimes a guitar has too much cultural and cosmic weight to pick up. This he needed to talk himself into.
“Playing Jeff’s guitar was amazing, though I truly didn’t feel worthy of it,” says Kennedy. “I was a little uncomfortable, to be honest. I gradually convinced myself that it was okay. It’s just a guitar that’s part of this incredible history. All I had to do was not taint that history.”
And there is a lot of history. Buckley’s version of Hallelujah was in many/most critics’ opinion the definitive take on Leonard Cohen’s original. “Grace is an album that gave me the same feeling as hearing Eruption,” says Kennedy.
Kennedy’s performance was captured on video for posterity. You can check it out on YouTube [below] and judge for yourself whether he did it justice (1.8mn views, 40k-plus likes, circa 300 dislikes delivered a consensus of sorts that he most definitely did).
As for that tone you’re hearing in the video, Kennedy explains to Guitarist that, like, say, Kirk Hammett’s Greeny Les Paul, there’s something “technically wrong” with the wiring and that gives it the secret sauce.
Apparently, there’s something technically wrong with it, at least from what Matt Lucas explained to me. That’s what gives it that beautiful shimmery sound
“It’s just an early-to-mid ’80s Tele, but there’s something weird about how the pickup was wired,” he says. “Apparently, there’s something technically wrong with it, at least from what Matt Lucas explained to me. That’s what gives it that beautiful shimmery sound. It’s all down to this imperfection, which makes it even cooler. When you plug it in, you think, ‘Oh yeah, there’s that sound!’”
The listing on Matt’s Guitar Shop offers some insights as to what made Buckley’s Tele exceptional. After all, a 1983 Telecaster doesn’t necessarily excite a collector in the same way as a Nocaster or ’51 Blackguard would. But this was a little unusual in that it had been modded with a Seymour Duncan Hot Lead Stack, a noiseless pickup based around an Alnico V bar magnet that has a warmer character than your typical Tele bridge pickup. It has a bit more output, too.
The original pickguard had been switched out for a mirrored ‘guard (like Chrissie Hynde's Telecaster, and this had an unusual top-loading six-saddle bridge, which as Matt’s Guitar Store notes, “usually adds some snappiness” to the tone. So, then, a one-off Tele. Perhaps with this being the 75th anniversary of the Telecaster, and Fender having already launched a number of limited run Teles to mark the occasion, maybe we might see an official replica. Who can say?
What we can say is that Buckley changed Kennedy’s life. Speaking to MusicRadar in September 2019, just a couple of months before he performed Hallelujah in Paris, Kennedy explained how Buckley opened him up to a new way of singing.
He had this angelic sound which I hadn’t heard many male singers utilise. He used a lot of falsetto and soft-spoken ideas, almost more of a feminine side, which I thought was really interesting
““Jeff was such an important musical figure in my evolution, especially in the early to mid-90s,” said Kennedy. ““Jeff was such an important musical figure in my evolution, especially in the early to mid ‘90s. Don’t get me wrong, I loved what was happening in Seattle. I’m from the Pacific Northwest and am very proud of all those bands and how much they affected music. But at that stage in my development, I was really trying to figure out how to integrate blues and RnB into what I was doing, to help inspire my own sound… I was just looking for guide posts.
“When Jeff Buckley came out, there was such a level of musicianship and emotive quality to his voice that really appealed to me. He had this angelic sound which I hadn’t heard many male singers utilise. He used a lot of falsetto and soft-spoken ideas, almost more of a feminine side, which I thought was really interesting.”
But Buckley had power, too, and that did not go unnoticed. That sense of dynamic range is something that you can hear in Kennedy’s vocals, too.
“He had this power in his upper register,” added Kennedy. “It was ferocious when he went into those almost Robert Plant-style wails, then he would bring it down into something very soft that would draw you in. It was his sense of dynamics and that overall control over his voice that really appealed to me. Grace is a truly brilliant album… I think we were robbed of a great talent there.”
Alter Bridge’s self-titled album is out now via Napalm Records.
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