Video: Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge) Performs “Hallelujah” Live with Jeff Buckley’s Guitar

“Hallelujah,” the Leonard Cohen classic, is one of those tunes sure to summon an avalanche of tears from everyone in the room if it’s sung with the right gusto. The song wasn’t a hit upon its 1984 release, nor did it register with the populace when Jeff Buckley re-recorded it ten years later. It wasn’t until more than ten years after that, in 2006, nine years after his death, that Buckley’s version really caught on and captured the popular imagination. Now it’s a staple; there isn’t anyone who doesn’t know it, and most folks of a certain age credit Buckley’s version as the definitive one.

Speaking of gusto, Alter Bridge and Slash vocalist Myles Kennedy, who is one of the most talented singers working in rock today, has been performing the song for years, both with Alter Bridge and as a solo artist. “Hallelujah” isn’t in the setlist on the band’s current European tour, but when they rolled up to The Olympia in Paris on Monday night, December 9, they learned that Buckley’s Fender Telecaster was in the building, the very one he used on stage in that very venue in 1995 to record the live album Live À L’Olympia (released in 2001). And, well… you know what had to happen.

I’m just gonna shut up now because nothing else I say is gonna matter. Watch, cry, and let your heart melt. If you stick around ’til the end of the clip you’ll even get to see Kennedy lose it, plus he uses the word verklempt.