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LOS ANGELES, CA — Fifteen years and five albums into one of modern rock’s most enduring collaborations, SLASH FT MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS, also known as SMKC, return today with the new single and official music video, “Flying Blind”. The anthemic track is the first taste of a powerful new chapter for the band and serves as the title track from its highly anticipated fifth studio album, FLYING BLIND, arriving worldwide Feb. 26, 2027, via Gibson Records.
Recorded largely live with longtime producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette at Studio Barbarosa in Florida,
the 12-track album captures SLASH on guitar and pedal steel, MYLES KENNEDY on vocals, TODD KERNS on bass, BRENT FITZ on drums, and FRANK SIDORIS on rhythm guitar at their most immediate, instinctive, and tightly connected. The band completed the bulk of the record in approximately one week, often recording two songs a day with the musicians performing together in the same room.
“It’s a really fun, kind of spontaneous rock ‘n’ roll record,” says SLASH of FLYING BLIND. “It’s very straightforward and down-to-earth and raw.”
Listen to “Flying Blind,” out today across all digital platforms, and watch the music video, shot on location at The Viper Room in Los Angeles and directed by John Harvatine IV HERE. Pre-save, add and order the album FLYING BLIND HERE.
Created spontaneously during pre-production, “Flying Blind” began when SLASH introduced a riff as the musicians were preparing to rehearse. The song developed quickly, combining SMKC’s unmistakable hard-rock drive with a soaring melody and immediate hook that ultimately made it the natural choice to introduce the album.
SLASH explains, “Created in the studio while we were standing there in pre-production, a riff came to me and started developing. I had nothing of that song prior to those guys coming in, and then we started up a night of rehearsal and played that riff. It came together really quickly. As for it being the first single, you never know what the first single is going to be until you’ve recorded it. When I started thinking about it, ‘Flying Blind’ just seemed to have the right kind of melodic sensibilities and a hook to make it single material.”
For MYLES KENNEDY, the title track’s lyric examines the shortcuts people sometimes pursue in their search for fulfillment. “I really enjoyed putting a melody to this song,” KENNEDY adds. “The way the chord progression starts in the beginning had a nice flow to it. The lyric is about how sometimes people ry to take shortcuts and try to find the easy way to achieve happiness or enlightenment.”
SMKC have also announced the FLYING BLIND WORLD TOUR 2027, an extensive international run launching in Latin America in April before reaching North America on April 23 and continuing through the United Kingdom and Europe. The North American tour includes two nights at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, as well as performances at New York City’s Beacon Theatre, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Boston’s Citizens House of Blues, Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium, and other landmark venues.
Fans can sign up now for early access to tickets at https://laylo.com/slash/m/flyingblindworldtour2027.
Tickets go on sale to the general public Oct. 9 at https://www.slashonline.com/tour/.
In celebration of the release of FLYING BLIND, SMKC have partnered with Fandiem to launch a special charitable sweepstakes giving fans the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Wales to meet Slash backstage at Cardiff Castle. Benefiting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the campaign offers one winner and a guest round-trip travel to Cardiff, a three-night hotel stay, tickets on SLASH’s guestlist for his performance at Cardiff Castle, backstage access to meet Slash, front-of-house viewing, access to pre- show soundcheck, a Slash merch pack, a South Wales sightseeing tour, and a pre-show dinner.
Fans can donate now and enter for a chance to win at www.fandiem.com/slash and take part in this exclusive experience while helping raise funds for two organizations dedicated to mental health and suicide prevention.
SMKC continue to work the same way they did at the beginning: get into a room, play, and see what happens. That philosophy drives FLYING BLIND, the band’s first full-length studio album since 2022’s acclaimed 4. Some of its songs developed from SLASH’s demos and musical fragments, while others were created spontaneously with the musicians playing together in a room.
SLASH brought the initial material to KENNEDY, who added vocal melodies and lyrics before the songs were developed into full-band arrangements with bassist TODD KERNS, drummer BRENT FITZ, and rhythm guitarist FRANK SIDORIS.
“He’s an incredible riff writer,” KENNEDY says of SLASH. “He also comes up with simple chord progressions that are very compelling for melodies. It works, and it’s timeless.”
Unlike previous SMKC albums, whose riffs and arrangements sometimes evolved through nightly soundchecks and extended touring, much of FLYING BLIND came together in concentrated bursts between the members’ other projects. SLASH developed the material while touring with Guns N’ Roses, recording his acclaimed blues album Orgy of the Damned, and launching the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival. KENNEDY began working on the songs during a break from Alter Bridge and while creating his third solo album. “Our schedule is tight, and you have to abide by it or everything else starts to get affected,” he says. “Now it’s just a given that you’re always creating. It’s a muscle thing. The creative part of your brain doesn’t have time to atrophy, and you just keep going.”
The band reconvened with Baskette, who previously produced SMKC’s World on Fire in 2014 and Living the Dream in 2018, at his Studio Barbarosa in Florida. Staying together throughout the sessions allowed the musical and personal chemistry at the center of the band to become an essential part of the recording.
Going into the sessions, SLASH gave Baskette two clear instructions: keep the recording as live as possible, and do not overwork the performances afterward. “He really adhered to that,” SLASH says. “It worked out great.” The arrangements were largely in place before recording began, but remained open enough to accommodate spontaneous ideas in the studio. With the musicians performing simultaneously, the band retained as much of the natural interplay and energy of each complete performance as possible. KENNEDY recorded his vocals several months later and describes the finished album as a high point in SMKC’s recording history. “Out of all the records, the sounds and performances on Flying Blind are my favorite. It’s very present. It’s right there,” he says.
Across its 12 tracks, FLYING BLIND explores a broad range of sounds without abandoning the band’s direct, hard-rock foundation. “Good Time Girl” combines a talk box hook with a pronounced country twang influenced by pioneering guitarist Jimmy Bryant and steel guitarist Speedy West, while “Sweet Kill” delivers brash, riff-driven rock that SLASHcalls “probably the most ’80s thing I’ve done in a while.”
“One of Your Kind” moves with a down-tuned churn, while sharp, punk-influenced chords drive “Here in Babylon.” “Thrill Seeker” is built around a dizzying descending riff that remains deep in the pocket, and “Rev My Heart” is a classic rock ‘n’ roll rave-up anchored by an unforgettable progression and lyric inspired by the night Kennedy first met his future wife. The instrumental “Living the Dream” continues an SMKC tradition, giving Slash room to improvise and placing his unmistakable guita playing at the forefront. “I’ve done one of these instrumentals on every Conspirators record excep Apocalyptic Love,” SLASH says. “It’s fun to have something that I can open up and improvise on, where I don’t have any specific guidelines or guardrails. It’s nice to do a new one every record, so that live you don’t have to do the same one all the time.”
One of the album’s most significant departures is “Looking for a Miracle,” the first song SLASH ha written on pedal steel and the first to feature a recorded pedal steel solo from the guitarist. SLASH developed the original musical idea on pedal steel before adapting it for guitar, so the full band could
rehearse the song. He then returned to the pedal steel during the recording sessions and worked out the solo at Studio Barbarosa. “I love pedal steel,” SLASH says. “It’s one of these instruments that is so unbelievable in what you can do with it. So it’s become a thing for me. But it is a commitment. It’s a pretty complex instrument.”
KENNEDY and the rest of the band have watched SLASH’s relationship with the instrument develop over time. “For a long time, we would go and rehearse for tours or do pre-production, and then we’d leave, and Slash would stay at his studio and practice to all hours on mastering pedal steel.”
The album concludes with “Stem the Flow,” a sweeping final statement centered on disillusionment with institutions and systems once believed to be unbreakable. Hard-hitting, spontaneous, and wide-ranging, FLYING BLIND captures SMKC sounding as loose, raw, and locked-in as ever.
The roots of SMKC stretch back to SLASH’s star-studded, self-titled 2010 solo album, on which KENNEDY appeared as one of several guest vocalists. The musical and personal connection that followed quickly developed into a permanent band. “I got into working with the Conspirators as a happy accident from doing that first solo album,” SLASH says. “I established a relationship with these guys on a musical and personal level that I wasn’t about to give up when Guns restarted.”
What began without a long-term plan has grown into a 15-year partnership, five studio albums, and numerous world tours. “It blows my mind that 15 years has moved this fast,” KENNEDY says. “It’s been the blink of an eye. But as they say, time flies when you’re having fun, and we have a lot of fun. It’s a pinch-me kind of thing.”
Fifteen years after forming, SLASH FT. MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS continue to refine their sound while carrying the torch for immediate, unvarnished rock ‘n’ roll. For SLASH, the force behind FLYING BLIND and SMKC remains the pure pleasure of playing music. “When we started, we didn’t have anything,” SLASH says. “We weren’t setting out to conquer the world. It was just for the pure pleasure of it. So now, we get together and play, we have a really good time, and then we go out and tour and do it again the next time.” SLASH laughs. “As long as there’s electricity, we’ll keep plugging in.”
Following is the track listing for FLYING BLIND:
1. “Avarice and Greed”
2. “Good Time Girl”
3. “Thrill Seeker”
4. “One of Your Kind”
5. “Flying Blind”
6. “Looking for a Miracle”
7. “Sweet Kill”
8. “Here In Babylon”
9. “Living the Dream”
10. “(Don’t) Thread the Needle”
11. “Rev My Heart”
12. “Stem the Flow”
SLASH FT. MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS are:
SLASH guitar and pedal steel
MYLES KENNEDY vocals
TODD KERNS bass and vocals
BRENT FITZ drums
FRANK SIDORIS rhythm guitar
Catch SMKC on the FLYING BLIND WORLD TOUR 2027:
DATE CITY VENUE
LATIN AMERICAN DATES
Fri Apr 2 Santiago, Chile Teatro Caupolican
Sun Apr 4 Mendoza, Argentina Arena Maipú
Tue Apr 6 Córdoba, Argentina Plaze del la Música
+ Wed Apr 7 Buenos Aires, Argentina Movistar Arena
Sat Apr 10 Florianópolis, Brazil Arena Opus
Sun Apr 11 Curitiba, Brazil Live Curitiba
Tue Apr 13 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Fundição Progresso
Wed Apr 14 São Paulo, Brazil Espaço Unimed
NORTH AMERICAN DATES
Fri Apr 23 Reno, NV Grand Theatre @ The Grand Sierra Resort
Sat Apr 24 Rohnert Park, CA Graton Resort & Casino
Mon Apr 26 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern
Tue Apr 27 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern
Thu Apr 29 Del Mar, CA The Sound
Sat May 1 Albuquerque, NM Route 66 Casino
Sun May 2 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium
Tue May 4 Kansas City, MO The Midland Theatre
Wed May 5 Des Moine, IA Val Air Ballroom
Fri May 7 Windsor, ON Caesars Windsor
Sat May 8 Niagara Falls, ON OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino
Mon May 10 Boston, MA Citizens House Of Blues
Wed May 12 New York, NY Beacon Theare
Mon May 17 Nashvillw, TN Ryman Auditorium
Wed May 19 St. Louis, MO The Factory
+ Fri May 21 Norman, OK Riverwind Casino
+ Sat May 12 Tulsa, OK Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
UK AND EUROPEAN DATES
Mon Jun 7 Munich, Germany Zenith
Wed Jun 9 Warsaw, Poland Letnia Scena Progresii
*Thu Jun 10 Nickelsdorf, Austria Nova Rock Festival
Sat Jun 12 Milan, Italy Carroponte
Sun Jun 13 Rome, Italy Rock In Roma
*Thu Jun 17 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain Azkena Rock Festival
+Wed Jun 23 Stockholm, Sweden Grona Lund
Mon Jun 28 Dusseldorf, Germany Mitsubishi Electric Halle
Wed Jun 30 Cardiff, UK Cardiff Castle
Thu Jul 1 Scarborough, UK Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Sat Jul 3 Dublin, Ireland Trinity College
Sun Jul 4 Belfast, UK Custom House Square
Tue Jul 6 Halifax, UK Piece Hall
Wed Jul 7 London UK Eventim Apollo
*Fri Jul 9 Weert, Netherlands Bospop
*Sun Jul 11 Vizovice, Czech Republic Masters Of Rock
Mon Jul 12 Zagreb, Croatia SRC Salata
Wed Jul 14 Budapest, Hungary Budapest Park
Fri Jul 16 Belgrade, Serbia Luka Beograd
Sun Jul 18 Athens, Greece Lycabettus Theatre
Thu Jul 22 Istanbul, Turkey Bonus, Parkorman
*Sun Jul 25 Plovdiv, Bulgaria Hills Of Rock
*Mon Jul 26 Ghimbav, Romania Rockstadt Extreme Festival
*Festival date
+ On-sale date TBC
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Photo credit: Andy Kellen
