"Blackbird" is a song by American rock band Alter Bridge from their album of the same name, which was released on October 5, 2007, by Universal Republic.
It was composed and arranged by Alter Bridge,[4] and the lyrics were written by lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Myles Kennedy, who said that the creation of the song was difficult and that it took a long time.
Vik Bansal from musicOMH referred to "Blackbird" as the album's pièce de résistance and stated, "An eight-minute paean to a lost loved one, it never comes close to sounding mawkish and instead counterpoints an ascendant tune with doomy, emotionally-charged riffs that somehow create a general sense of uplifting.
"[9] In their review for the album, Ultimate Guitar Archive said that the song "starts out like any other rock ballad you might hear, but by the end you’ve been taken in every which direction.
"[10] Sharon Mawer of Allmusic said, "It was on the title track with eight minutes of powerful emotions at work that the band really shone, the song alternating between a hard rock guitar riff-heavy number and an acoustic ballad about the loss of a loved one.
In a poll allowing readers to vote, the song won and defeated performances by famous rock guitarists such as Slash, Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, John Petrucci, Steve Vai, and David Gilmour by a wide margin.