"People will become conditioned to artificial intelligence and learn to accept it": Kenny Wayne Shepherd on the spark of Stevie Ray Vaughan, smoking with Joe Bonamassa, and the dumb creep of AI

(Image credit: Mark Seliger)

Musicians rarely become more prolific with age – but Kenny Wayne Shepherd didn’t get the memo. Having broken out of mid-90s Louisiana as a kid guitar slinger, the 47-year-old has just followed up last year’s Dirt On My Diamonds album with a horn-driven second volume.

You’ve released two albums of original music in consecutive years.

I do feel like I’m on a roll. Like, I have four different albums I’m working on right now. I look at the Dirt On My Diamonds albums as companion pieces. The songs all came from the same writing session down in Muscle Shoals, and musically, spiritually, the whole vibe, I think they make a cohesive statement.

What’s the appeal of a horn section?

It started for me when we did The Traveler [2019]. I started wondering what would happen if we put horns on our cover of Buffalo Springfield’s Mr Soul. It made it even more badass. I think horns add another dimension. These days you seem less worried about showing off your guitar technique. Once you become secure in what you’re doing, you’re able to take an objective inventory of your strengths and weaknesses. For me, I felt like the strength in my playing is not necessarily the technical prowess or speed – although I can play fast – but conveying emotion. It’s about playing the right note at the right moment, and just penetrating the soul with it.

Having said that, is there any guitar part you couldn’t play? Could you master the Steve Vai catalogue, for example, if you wanted to?

If I wanted to put in the time to learn how to play like that, I absolutely believe that I could. Without a doubt. There’s no hesitation in me saying that. And I don’t mean that from any standpoint of arrogance, it’s just that I do believe I have the determination and the faculties.

Could AI-created music ever compete with songs by a fallible human?

Well, the short answer is no, I don’t believe it will ever have the substance or depth. But the more likely answer is that, as with anything, people will become conditioned and learn to accept it. First, it’s shocking. Then it becomes the norm. If you look at pop music, maybe I sound like a dinosaur, but it’s generally trended in a downward direction. The bar is not very high right now, but people have become accustomed to it because that’s what they’re being fed. I think AI could follow the same pattern.

You and Joe Bonamassa meet up to smoke cigars. What do you look for in a stogie?

They’re not huge cigars, but they’re of the premium nature, to be sure. Joe and I have a lot in common. It’s not every day you can talk to someone who’s almost had the same experience. I mean, it is not normal to find two people who start a career in the entertainment industry as children and grow up in that industry and become successful. It’s like the one per cent of the one per cent, right?

You got started after seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1984. What do you remember about that performance?

It was as if the world around me didn’t exist. That was the spark that lit the fire in me. He autographed my first Stratocaster: ‘Kenny, just play with all your heart’.

Dirt On My Diamonds Vol. 2 is out now via Provogue.

Henry Yates has been a freelance journalist since 2002 and written about music for titles including The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Classic Rock, Guitarist, Total Guitar and Metal Hammer. He is the author of Walter Trout's official biography, Rescued From Reality, a music pundit on Times Radio and BBC TV, and an interviewer who has spoken to Brian May, Jimmy Page, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie Wood, Dave Grohl, Marilyn Manson, Kiefer Sutherland and many more.