The album's first single, "Show Me a Leader", was released digitally and to rock radio on July 26, 2016.

At a length of 66 minutes and 12 seconds, The Last Hero is Alter Bridge's longest studio album to date.

The Last Hero was written during the winter of 2015, while both singer Myles Kennedy and guitarist Mark Tremonti were on tour with their respective projects (Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators and Tremonti), with the recording process being finished during the spring of 2016.

[9] TeamRock's Grant Moon gave the album four stars out of five and highly praised its lyrical themes, but lambasted Baskette's production, saying he "produces this all to within an inch of its life".

[10] In a review of the band's performance with Parallax Orchestra in October 2017, writer Dom Lawson referred to The Last Hero as "stodgy and overproduced".