Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Myles Kennedy was born Myles Richard Bass on November 27, 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts, but spent his childhood growing up in the Northwest on a farm near Spokane, Washington. Following the death of his father when Myles was four years old, his mother remarried, and he was given the Kennedy surname. In high school, Kennedy fell under the twin spell of Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye, and began playing the guitar at the age of 15 (he also played trumpet in his school's marching band), forming a local heavy metal band, Bittersweet, with some friends. After graduating in 1988, he moved on to study music at Spokane Falls Community College. He began playing guitar in a jazz group called the Cosmic Dust Fusion Band and was involved in the group's first album, Journey, which was released in 1991. Kennedy left the band shortly after the album appeared to handle lead vocals and lead guitar for Citizen Swing. The band released two albums, 1993's Cure Me with the Groove and 1995's Deep Down, before calling it quits.