Slash Ft. Myles Kennedy And The Conspirators Return With Flying Blind And 2027 World Tour

Slash ft. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators have returned with “Flying Blind”, a brand new single and official music video out today.

The anthemic track is the first taste of a new chapter for the band, and the title track of their fifth studio album, Flying Blind, which arrives worldwide on February 26, 2027 via Gibson Records.

The band, known to fans as SMKC, have also announced the Flying Blind World Tour 2027. The run starts in Latin America in April, moves on to North America and then heads to the UK and Europe for the summer, including a huge show at Cardiff Castle. Tickets go on general sale on October 9.

Fifteen years and five albums into one of modern rock’s most enduring partnerships, Flying Blind is the band’s first full-length studio album since 2022’s acclaimed 4. It was recorded largely live with longtime producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette at his Studio Barbarosa in Florida.

The 12-track record features Slash on guitar and pedal steel, Myles Kennedy on vocals, Todd Kerns on bass and vocals, Brent Fitz on drums and Frank Sidoris on rhythm guitar. The five musicians played together in the same room and finished the bulk of the album in around a week, often recording two songs a day.

“It’s a really fun, kind of spontaneous rock ‘n’ roll record,” says Slash. “It’s very straightforward and down-to-earth and raw.”

The new single itself was born on the spot. Slash came up with the riff during pre-production, just as the band were getting ready to rehearse, and the song came together quickly, pairing SMKC’s hard-rock drive with a soaring melody and an instant hook.

“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,” Slash explains. “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 Kennedy, the lyric looks at the shortcuts people sometimes take in their search for fulfilment. “I really enjoyed putting a melody to this song,” he says. “The way the chord progression starts in the beginning had a nice flow to it. The lyric is about how sometimes people try to take shortcuts and try to find the easy way to achieve happiness or enlightenment.”

The accompanying video was shot on location at The Viper Room in Los Angeles and directed by John Harvatine IV. “Flying Blind” is out now on all digital platforms.

The album follows the approach SMKC have always taken: get into a room, play, and see what happens. Some songs grew out of Slash’s demos and musical fragments, while others were written with the band playing together. Slash brought his ideas to Kennedy, who added melodies and lyrics before the band worked them into full arrangements with Kerns, Fitz and 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.”

This time round, the writing happened differently. Previous SMKC albums often took shape through soundchecks and long tours, but much of Flying Blind came together in short, focused bursts around the members’ other commitments.

Slash was developing material while touring with Guns N’ Roses, recording his blues album Orgy of the Damned and launching the S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival. Kennedy started work on the songs during a break from Alter Bridge, while also making his third solo album.

“Our schedule is tight, and you have to abide by it or everything else starts to get affected,” Kennedy 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.”

Baskette, who also produced the band’s World on Fire in 2014 and Living the Dream in 2018, was given two clear instructions by Slash: keep the recording as live as possible, and don’t overwork the performances afterwards. “He really adhered to that,” Slash says. “It worked out great.”

With the arrangements mostly in place but still open to ideas in the moment, the band kept as much of the natural interplay of each full take as they could. Kennedy recorded his vocals several months later, and he rates the result as a high point. “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.

Musically, the album covers a lot of ground without losing its hard-rock backbone. “Good Time Girl” pairs a talk box hook with a country twang inspired by guitarist Jimmy Bryant and steel guitarist Speedy West, while “Sweet Kill” is brash, riff-driven rock that Slash calls “probably the most ’80s thing I’ve done in a while.”

“One of Your Kind” rolls along on a down-tuned churn, while sharp, punk-influenced chords drive “Here In Babylon”. “Thrill Seeker” is built around a dizzying descending riff that stays deep in the pocket. “Rev My Heart” is a classic rock ‘n’ roll rave-up, with a lyric inspired by the night Kennedy first met his future wife.

There’s also an instrumental, “Living the Dream”, keeping up an SMKC tradition and putting Slash’s playing front and centre. “I’ve done one of these instrumentals on every Conspirators record except Apocalyptic Love,” he 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.”

One of the biggest departures is “Looking for a Miracle”, the first song Slash has written on pedal steel and the first to feature a recorded pedal steel solo from him. He wrote the idea on pedal steel, adapted it for guitar so the band could rehearse it, then went back to the pedal steel to work 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.”

His bandmates have watched that commitment up close. “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,” Kennedy recalls.

The album closes with “Stem the Flow”, a sweeping final statement about disillusionment with institutions and systems that once seemed unbreakable.

Flying Blind opens with “Avarice and Greed” and closes with “Stem the Flow”, with the title track sitting at the heart of the record at number five. The full track listing is below.

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

The story of SMKC goes back to Slash’s star-studded self-titled solo album in 2010, where Kennedy was one of several guest vocalists. The connection between them quickly grew 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 started without a long-term plan has become 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.”

For Slash, the driving force is still the simple pleasure of playing. “When we started, we didn’t have anything. We weren’t setting out to conquer the world. It was just for the pure pleasure of it,” he says, before adding with a laugh: “As long as there’s electricity, we’ll keep plugging in.”

Fans will get the chance to hear the new songs live next year. The Flying Blind World Tour 2027 opens in Santiago, Chile on April 2, with dates across Argentina and Brazil, before the North American leg begins in Reno on April 23.

Highlights in North America include two nights at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, along with shows at New York’s Beacon Theatre, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Boston’s Citizens House of Blues and Denver’s Fillmore Auditorium.

The UK and European leg starts in Munich on June 7 and runs through to the end of July, taking in major festivals including Nova Rock, Azkena Rock Festival, Bospop and Masters Of Rock. UK and Irish fans can catch the band at Cardiff Castle, Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Dublin’s Trinity College, Belfast’s Custom House Square, Halifax’s Piece Hall and London’s Eventim Apollo.

Fans can sign up now for early access to tickets, ahead of the general sale on October 9. Full dates and tickets are available at slashonline.com/tour.

To mark the album’s release, SMKC have also teamed up with Fandiem for a charity sweepstakes offering one fan the chance to meet Slash backstage at Cardiff Castle. The campaign benefits the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

The winner and a guest will receive return travel to Cardiff, a three-night hotel stay, places on Slash’s guestlist for the Cardiff Castle show, backstage access to meet Slash, front-of-house viewing, access to the pre-show soundcheck, a Slash merch pack, a South Wales sightseeing tour and a pre-show dinner. Fans can donate and enter at www.fandiem.com/slash.

The full list of Flying Blind World Tour 2027 dates is below, starting with the Latin American leg.

Fri Apr 2 – Santiago, Chile – Teatro Caupolican
Sun Apr 4 – Mendoza, Argentina – Arena Maipú
Tue Apr 6 – Córdoba, Argentina – Plaza de 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

The North American dates follow from late April.

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 Moines, 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 Theatre
Mon May 17 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
Wed May 19 – St. Louis, MO – The Factory
Fri May 21 – Norman, OK – Riverwind Casino +
Sat May 22 – Tulsa, OK – Hard Rock Hotel & Casino +

The tour then moves to the UK and Europe for June and July.

Mon Jun 7 – Munich, Germany – Zenith
Wed Jun 9 – Warsaw, Poland – Letnia Scena Progresji
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 – Gröna 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