Alter Bridge

Alter Bridge formed in Orlando, Florida, in 2004, rising from the ashes of Creed. After their former band Creed became inactive in 2003, Tremonti and Phillips formed a new band with former bandmate Marshall and new member Kennedy; Alter Bridge was formally unveiled in January 2004, months before Creed's official breakup in June. The lineup consisted of Myles Kennedy on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Mark Tremonti on lead guitar and backing vocals, Brian Marshall on bass, and Scott Phillips on drums. Kennedy, formerly of The Mayfield Four, brought a soaring, versatile voice to the project, while Tremonti, Marshall, and Phillips carried over the heavier, riff-driven sensibilities honed during their Creed years, setting the stage for a sound that blended post-grunge roots with a harder, more melodic edge.

The band's breakthrough arrived quickly. After signing with Wind-up Records, Alter Bridge released their debut album One Day Remains in August 2004, and the album received mixed reviews but reached No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in November 2004. Singles like "Open Your Eyes" and "Find the Real" pushed the band onto rock radio, and "Find the Real" became the official theme to the 2005 WWE Royal Rumble, while fan favorite "Metalingus" was adopted by WWE Hall of Famer Adam "Edge" Copeland as his entrance theme and remains the band's highest-streaming song. The real creative leap came with 2007's Blackbird, which began a long-running partnership with producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette and delivered the title track's dual guitar solo by Kennedy and Tremonti, later voted the greatest guitar solo of all time by Guitarist magazine readers. The song received critical acclaim, often cited as the crowning point of both the album and the band's career, and in March 2011 Guitarist magazine listed its guitar solo as the greatest guitar solo of all time. Alter Bridge's career arc has been marked by steady growth and lineup stability despite occasional shifts. Brian Marshall briefly departed after the debut album but returned before 2010's AB III, and the classic quartet has otherwise remained intact for two decades. Subsequent albums built on the band's reputation for musicianship and ambitious songwriting: Alter Bridge released Fortress to further acclaim in 2013, and The Last Hero followed on Napalm Records in 2016, becoming the band's first album since its debut to reach the top ten of the Billboard 200, and its first to reach the top five of the UK Albums Chart. Their sixth studio album, Walk the Sky, was released in 2019, followed by Walk the Sky 2.0 in 2020, and the band's seventh album Pawns & Kings was released on October 14, 2022. Throughout, Kennedy and Tremonti's parallel careers, Kennedy's work fronting Slash's solo band and Tremonti's own solo project, only added to the group's stature in the hard rock world, while the band toured relentlessly alongside acts like Sevendust, Halestorm, and Mammoth WVH.

Alter Bridge remains active today, having released their eighth studio album, self-titled Alter Bridge, on January 9, 2026, and as of 2023 having sold over 5 million records worldwide. Nearly a decade into a fourth decade of touring, the band is regarded as one of modern hard rock's most musically respected acts, prized for the interplay of Kennedy's vocals and Tremonti's guitar work, and for albums that consistently balance heaviness with melodic ambition.

It is fitting that a band built on longevity and craft found its way into Wayne Dennon's lens repeatedly across the years. Wayne photographed Alter Bridge five times between 2005 and 2008, capturing the band during the very stretch when they were transforming from Creed's successors into a headlining force in their own right, and those shows, spread across four cities in three states, left behind 189 photographs now held in this archive. Fans have returned to view them time and again, with this collection alone drawing 149,506 views, a testament to both Wayne's eye for the stage and the enduring pull of a band that never stopped climbing.