Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he originally began his musical career in Spokane, Washington as the guitarist in jazz band Cosmic Dust.
[3] Since early 2004, Kennedy's primary band has been Alter Bridge, which he founded with former Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips.
[6] In 2009, he recorded vocals for two songs on the eponymous debut solo album by former Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash, "Back from Cali" and "Starlight", released the following year.
[9] The following year, they collaborated on the title track for the Slash-produced film Nothing Left to Fear,[10] and in 2014 the collective released its second album World on Fire, which was again written by Slash and Kennedy.
[11] Kennedy continued to collaborate with other artists, featuring on the 2013 "guest version" of "Here's to Us" by Halestorm alongside Slash, Shinedown's Brent Smith, Sixx:A.M.'s James Michael, Theory of a Deadman's Tyler Connolly, Disturbed's David Draiman and In This Moment's Maria Brink.