ALTER BRIDGE’s MARK TREMONTI: ‘I Don’t Know If God Exists, But I Hope He Does’

BLABBERMOUTH.NET

In a brand new interview with the "Breaking Absolutes With Peter Orullian" podcast, ALTER BRIDGE guitarist Mark Tremonti reflected on the making of the band's third album, 2010's "AB III", which was previously described as a loose concept effort dealing with darker lyrical themes of struggling with faith. Mark said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "That was ALTER BRIDGE's darkest record. That was when Myles [Kennedy, ALTER BRIDGE singer] and I were kind of having those conversations about… Myles is about the best guy in the world, nicest guy in the world, but when it comes to God and faith in general, he jokes about it but he kind of throws away… he doesn't believe anything and thinks it's all kind of silly. But he says that on the outside but then he writes these songs like 'Show Me A Sign' — that's a dark song about the thoughts of faith and whatnot. And if you look at 'Words Darker Than Their Wings' — that's a direct conversation between me and Myles about how we both feel about God and about life beyond our lives." Tremonti continued: "I'm just like anybody else — I don't know if God exists, but I hope he does. I hope there's some bigger purpose for all of us. And Myles is just, like, 'There is no bigger purpose. Just be a good person while you're alive,' kind of thing. It's just a conversation between two people with different views. That record kind of dealt with that kind of issue." Prior to the making of "AB III", Tremonti, who writes ALTER BRIDGE's music with Kennedy, found out Myles's father was a Christian Scientist, who because of his faith had refused to see a doctor and subsequently died. Several years ago, Tremonti's former CREED bandmate Scott Stapp said that his faith-based lyrics led many to believe CREED was a Christian band. CREED wasn't and Scott's bandmates resented it, eventually contributing to the group's initial breakup. Tremonti recently confirmed that ALTER BRIDGE will reconvene in 2022 to record a new album. ALTER BRIDGE released a seven-song EP, "Walk The Sky 2.0", in November 2020 via Napalm Records. The effort contained live versions of a few of the band's favorites from the group's latest LP, "Walk The Sky" — "Wouldn't You Rather", "Pay No Mind", "Native Son", "Godspeed", "In The Deep" and "Dying Light" — as well as one new studio track, "Last Rites", which was written, recorded and completed entirely during the COVID-19 lockdown. "Walk The Sky" came out in October 2019 via Napalm Records.