Todd Kerns of Slash Ft. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators

Todd Kerns: Back On Track with

Slash Ft. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators

Interview by Ken Morton - Band Photo by Austin Nelson - Todd Kerns photo by Mary West

Todd Kerns is a musician for all seasons. Before his taking up bass duties with Slash, Kerns was best known for being a front man within the ranks of The Age Of Electric and Static In Stereo. Even during the pandemic Kerns would find plenty to work on. First a brand new band called Minefield with Matt Starr and Jeremy Asbrock. And then back on track with Slash Ft. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, recording a brand new album entitled 4. Available worldwide via BMG Music on February 11th, 4 finds Slash, Myles Kennedy, Brent Fitz, Todd Kerns and Frank Sidoris delivering their most hard hitting collection of songs to date. In this interview, Todd Kerns discusses the making of 4 in the midst of Covid, working with music icons such as Slash and Myles Kennedy, his new project Minefield, and a whole lot more...

How would you compare your work with Four compared to the previous releases you’ve done with Slash?

That’s a very good question. You know, what’s funny? Because in a lot of ways, I don’t really sit around listening to us very often. I really don’t sit around listening to anything that I do. It just seems kind of weird to me, but I have had to kind of go back and revisit a bunch of it because of getting ready for this next tour. But it’s really interesting how each record to me has a totally different flavor. Although it’s all cut from the same cloth at the same time. There’s definitely a sound. I definitely feel like we have a sound and a lot of it stems from the guitar riffs, by a very memorable, a very distinct guy. And then with Myles’ voice and melodies and then the harmonies that we throw on top of, it really creates this whole other animal. It doesn’t really sound like Alter Bridge and it doesn’t really sound like Guns N’ Roses or Velvet Revolver. I think it sounds like its own thing.

We did Apocalyptic Love almost 10 years ago and that was a very live record as well. We recorded it with the intention of doing it as live as possible - and that’s just Slash’s M.O. I can’t really speak for him, but he definitely likes the in the moment-ness of it all, bouncing off each other and this record is 100% live. When I say 100% is like we did it as live as possible. We had some issues with Covid and what not that prevented some of the vocals to be done live, but

it’s the most the live recording I’ve ever done. In the sense of like no click track, not even any headphones. We were just kind of playing loud and live in a room together and they just kind of captured it. And Myles would be singing along depending on how sick he was. But for most of it, we did all backing tracks and quite a bit of the vocal in five days.

What was the experience like recording this new album in Nashville?

It was totally different experience. I mean, up to this point. We have always done our records in Los Angeles. The idea of going to Nashville was very exciting. And the fact we recorded in the old RCA building, that Chet Atkins sort of pioneered. You’d be just be standing there and like, “Dolly Parton did this, Waylon Jennings did that and Willie Nelson was here” and you’re like, “Oh my God.” It’s a lot of like musical ghosts in that building but it was very interesting. The actual experience of it was radically different. But at the same time, not. I think working with Dave Cobb as the producer was very interesting because it was a lot of “Why can’t we do this?”, you know, these sort of getting conditioned in a certain way to believe that records have to meet a certain way. And to be honest, since the recording of that, I’ve done records and before and after in a completely opposite way where no one’s in the same room together. It’s a very different animal and I think it produces different results. It’s interesting, the overwhelming first part of that conversation is that this person is from something that was very important to me, even in my development as a musician. But it’s kind of gotten past that to just being my friend, you know when a guy that I look up to and rely upon in multiple areas, not just music. But at the same time, he taught us so much about just work ethic in a way. I think that there’s something to be said that he’s a better guitar player today than he was - he’s not one of those people who sort of put his feet up in 1990, 1995. He’s really driven to keep making music, to keep getting better all the time. I’m not sure what he’s doing right now, this moment, but he’s probably playing guitar. He’s constantly pushing himself to be better.

He’s such an interesting person. In a lot of ways, to be honest, he’s so much different than I expected him to be. I mean just from your rock and roll history, the lessons that you took as a kid, you just assumed, he was this animal with a Jack Daniel’s bottle who would grunt and play music. But he’s one of the most thoughtful and intelligent people I know. He reads these big fat books and can spew history on you all day long. And you’re like”Wow,” you did not expect this. It’s a silly thing to consider when in reality we’re all multi-layered beyond the sort of persona that we carry on stage or in music.

4 is definitely a magic number when it comes to an album title. Led Zeppelin had a 4 and Foreigner had a 4 – both big iconic albums. Was that kind of intentional to put such a magic number to your album?

I remember talking about it even while I was in tracking. Somebody stumbled across the idea that this was the 4th Conspirators record I remember even that Dave Cobb was a part of that conversation. We’ve been around for a long time. I’ve been playing with Slash 12 years this coming March but the Conspirators didn’t really materialize until 2 years later so that put us at the 10-year mark by March, which is mind-blowing - because Frank, Brent, Myself, Slash, and Myles have all been together playing and creating music for 10 years. Of course, there have been all kinds of Guns N’ Roses activity, and Alter Bridge activity and everybody else has different projects. But that’s sort of the way modern music is these days. No one seems to have just one thing they do but I think that’s part of the charm of it.

Many people see Slash as this guitar legend. How do you see Slash when you’re working with him? Let’s talk about Myles Kennedy. When I interviewed him a few years ago, he was probably one of the nicest people I’d ever interviewed. What has it been like working with Myles throughout these last 10 years?

Well, you’re not wrong. He has like, zero pretenses at all. I mean, he’s one of those people who has not forgotten where he come from. What is the great line in that KISS song, God Gave Rock And Roll To You? There’s a great line that says, “If you want to be a singer and play guitar man, you got to sweat or you won’t go far. It’s never too late to work 9 to 5.” And I think that there’s some always the sort of feeling that if you

don’t work really hard - if you don’t really keep your eye on the prize - this could all go away. I think that a lot of us sort of have to maintain this work ethic and I think that Myles is always been very aware of that old adage of, you know, you have to be good to the people on the way up because on the way back down, they all remember.

I don’t peceive Myles going back down in any way, shape, or form anyway. I think that it’s important that he’s never stopped being that kid from Spokane, Washington. In fact, he still lives in Spokane, Washington. He’s purposely not forgotten who that is. He’s just a genuinely lovely person. I mean, he’s very driven and ambitious in his own way. He’s not like one of those nice guys that’s just going to kind of say “Okay.” He’s constantly working. He’s constantly pushing himself to do new things and he’s an unbelievably talented skilled guy. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been playing a riff with Slash and it’s something super crazy. I’m like “Well, I don’t know what the hell?” There are no lyrics and melody for this particular idea. This is going to be instrumental on something because it’s so crazy. But Myles will always manage to chip away at that solo until you find the statue inside. I think that’s his talentt. That’s a skill. That’s his purpose and he’s amazing at it. don’t know about that. That makes me mildly uncomfortable. I should probably jump into that just to try it.” But it was covid. None of us were doing anything.”

You have a new band called Minefield, Matt Starr is also in that band. How did that project come about?

That was 100% a covid experiment. It’s like we’re literally all sitting at home. That was the early days into Covid where we weren’t really supposed to be doing and going anywhere or being anything and like anybody, we’re all climbing the walls. And I’m friends with Jeremy Asbrock and Matt Starr.

Jeremy reaches out and says, “Hey, we’re doing this project with this kid Brandon Fields, would you be up for singing?” They had this song song and I was kind of like, “Well, let me hear the song. It sounds kind of fun. If Jeremy and Matt are both vouching for it, then it must be fun. Must be cool. So we started bouncing ideas back and forth and started coming up with songs. And Alone Together ended up being first single and in my opinion, is still a very strong track.

I’m sort of thinking a lot about this because of the nature of the way things are right now and how crazy everything is. I’m very grateful that things like this come to me. Because in reality, had I not done that, that’s 10 or 12 or whatever songs that wouldn’t exist. And then an experience that I would not have had.. I tend be one of those people who will say yes to things that are interesting, especially things that are kind of like unusual kind or mildly concerning. I’m kind of like “I So the idea of somebody coming to me – because I’m literally sitting at home watching Tiger King and shit! Please get me off the couch! It was a lot of fun and I hope we get to do it again or get to play a show. None of us are going to live forever. I just think that it’s important to just keep creating and growing. And I think that record is a big part of that. We all sort of talk about it, and it’s been a year or something like that.

It’s tough to really engage any of these things based on like “We sold a million copies!” That’s not the conversation. It’s more about, “Is this good music and feels good? Are we happy about it?” That’s the end of the conversation to me. Is it like”Yeah, I love it. I feel good about it. I’m happy. We did it.” I’m proud of that - that we were able to pull it together (for Mindfield), because none of us were in the same room or even the same state to make that even happen. 1 guy from California, 1 guy in Tennessee, 1 guy in Kentucky. I was in Nevada - so it was bizarre that we were able to pull this together and then make a video. We look like we’re all playing together and we’re not. It’s super surreal that that was even able to happen.