A singer-songwriter from Lanarkshire has teamed up with a legendary Bay City Roller and a renowned Scottish hit maker.
Roller guitarist Stuart 'Woody' Wood plays guitar on Kenny Lee Roberts’ new single after being introduced to his music by the hugely influential John McLaughlin, the man behind huge hits for bands such as Busted and Westlife.
The Bay City Roller quickly became a huge fan of Kenny’s work and jumped at the chance to work with him on the single Turn the Music Up after John McLaughlin let him hear some of his work.
Kenny told Lanarkshire Live : “John was working on a project with Woody at the same time as producing the first of the tracks for my new album. Woody heard the tune and thankfully liked it, so when John suggested working together he was up for it.
“It was surreal when he called and told me he’d lined up Stuart to play on the track – then actually meeting him at the studio to record. When he opened his guitar case and there was the famous yellow tartan guitar, that’s when I thought ‘this is just crazy’.
“Luckily we just clicked straight away. We had a lot of fun and there has even been chat about doing more together, which is amazing.”
Woody, who is now working on new music for the legendary Bay City Rollers, said: “I loved Kenny’s voice as I couldn’t quite place it, he has his own style. In my opinion he’s an absolute natural, a great guy and a great talent.”
John McLaughlin felt both were a perfect fit in both music and personality.
He said: “Kenny has something really special and he is just in it for the love of doing it, which really appeals to me.
"Having worked with everyone from Westlife to Busted to Rod Stewart, I felt these two together would have something and it just worked right away.”
With one of the music industry’s biggest names behind him in John, Kenny isn’t short of the right advice but he admits meeting him for the first time was “daunting”.
He added: “Before I met him face to face, you do the Google search thing first and I thought, ‘Oh dear, I might be out my depth here, but I’ll go with it and see if I can blag my way through this’.
“That all changed as soon as we met as he is so down to earth, welcoming and laid back that you forget what he has achieved in the business, although I am now reminded from time to time.”
The Lanarkshire man had released an album under the name Killing Kenny but there were issues with it, so a new name was chosen and he released first single Sweet Renegade under the radar.
He explained: “The name Killing Kenny was a bit of a South Park and Killing Eve combo, but I was advised that any name with a negative word in it can make it more difficult for radio play and can also affect things like YouTube listings and DSP platforms like Spotify and Deezer, so I became Kenny Lee Roberts.
"If anyone wants to buy 1000 mugs with Killing Kenny on the side, I have them stored in a lockup.”
Kenny Lee Roberts featuring Stuart Wood: Turn The Music Up is available now.
You can watch the video here.
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