MYLES KENNEDY's Respiratory Infection Forces Cancelation Of ALTER BRIDGE's Performance At WELCOME TO ROCKVILLE

ALTER BRIDGE was forced to cancel its performance this weekend at Welcome To Rockville at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The Myles Kennedy-fronted outfit was scheduled to play on Saturday (May 20) at the four-day event, which is hosting more than 95 bands, including headliners SLIPKNOT, TOOL, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and PANTERA.

Just a couple of hours before ALTER BRIDGE was due to take the stage, the band released the following statement via social media: "Due to the recent onset of a respiratory infection that is limiting the vocal abilities of Myles Kennedy, ALTER BRIDGE regretfully have to cancel their performance at Welcome To Rockville today. We were all really looking forward to playing for you, but there is no way that we can give you the show that you all deserve in his current condition. We thank everyone for their understanding and can't wait to perform for you in the future."

Welcome To Rockville was expecting to draw around 45,000 people every day.

In a 2018 interview with CrypticRock.com, Kennedy stated about how he takes care of his voice: "I try not to push too much. I am very lucky I studied initially with a great vocal coach. There was a certain amount of pushback from me when my manager at the time suggested I take some lessons. I said, 'Oh, man. I don't wanna sound like a trained vocalist.' I just wanted a certain vibe to come through. Then I started to notice, as I would tour a lot, my voice would start to break down and get tired. Once I learned a certain technique that helped prolong my voice, that was the main thing. The other part of the equation is to take care of your instrument. Don’t smoke; that is a real bad one. Be careful how much you drink and party, because it's not like a guitar player where you can put it on a stand and enjoy yourself; as a singer, your instrument is with you at all times. So if you have a few one night, wake up the next day and have a show, you might pay for the fun you had the night before."

ALTER BRIDGE recently announced a summer 2023 leg of the "Pawns & Kings" tour, featuring support from SEVENDUST and MAMMOTH WVH. The trek will kick off on August 1 in Buffalo, New York and conclude on August 31 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. MJT will also appear at the last seven shows of the tour.

ALTER BRIDGE's "Pawns & Kings" album came out last October. The follow-up to 2019's "Walk The Sky" was once again recorded at Studio Barbarosa in Gotha, Florida with producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette, who has previously worked with SEVENDUST, MAMMOTH WVH and SLASH, among others.

"Pawns & Kings" is comprised of 10 all-new epic tracks that are sure to garner ALTER BRIDGE new fans around the globe while satiating their fervent supporters that have been patiently waiting for new music from the band.

In a recent interview with Consequence, ALTER BRIDGE guitarist Mark Tremonti said that the lyrical inspiration for "Pawns & Kings" didn't come from the COVID-19 shutdown of 2020 and 2021.

"I don't think the album was influenced by the pandemic too much, because for me, I was already on tour with [my eponymous band] TREMONTI and we did a whole album cycle, and I was writing during that tour," he explained. "So, I was out in the world, and the pandemic didn't really effect this record, but maybe the TREMONTI one."

In a separate interview with Louder Than War, Tremonti said about the musical direction of "Pawns & Kings": "We deliberately tried to do a record where everything was stripped away but the instruments, and I think it worked. The guitars and everything in there just seemed to fill more space. It's funny how there seems to be more atmosphere on a record without all the atmospheric effects. Just the instruments themselves have all this space to breathe, which gives it more room to just be a fuller sound. So that's the only thing that we wanted to do with this record. Other than that, me and Myles [Kennedy, vocals/guitar] were, again, competing almost to write as many songs as we could before pre-production. I would turn in two songs and he would turn in two songs, and he would turn in three songs and I would turn in three songs. And it was pretty much like a nine-month race to the finish line."