Shinedown formed 25 years ago in Jacksonville, Florida, after the breakup of the band Dreve. The group was founded by Brent Smith (vocals) who was joined early on by Jasin Todd (guitar), Brad Stewart (bass), and Barry Kerch (drums). Smith had previously been signed as part of Dreve, but after that project dissolved, Atlantic Records backed him in building a new band.
Their debut album, Leave a Whisper (2003) got plenty of radio play thanks to singles like “Fly From the Inside” and “45.” When Todd and Stewart were replaced in 2008 with Zach Myers (guitar) and Eric Bass (bass, piano), the group solidified the core lineup that has remained stable since.
It turned out to be a great move because that year their third album, The Sound of Madness (2008), became their commercial breakthrough, producing the singles “Second Chance,” “Sound of Madness,” and “If You Only Knew.” “Second Chance” reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The hits kept coming. In 2012, Amaryllis (2012), produced three singles that reached #1 on the Billboard Mainstream chart: “Bully,” “Unity,” and “Enemies.”
Then in 2015 another trio of singles “Cut the Cord,” “State of My Head,” and “How Did You Love" from Threat to Survival made it to #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.
Shinedown’s eighth studio album, Ei8ht is scheduled to drop next month and already has six advance singles: “Three Six Five,” “Dance, Kid, Dance,” “Killing Fields,” “Searchlight,” “Safe and Sound,” and “Outlaw.”
When Smith stopped by the Setlist Studios to chat with Bree Wilde recently, he talked about the album and some fond memories of concert-going as a fan and as a headliner.
Click the video on top for the full interview or keep scrolling for a few of the highlights.
Shinedown, Madison Square Garden, 7/20/25
Bree Wilde: I read that you guys, you played Madison Square Garden last year for the first time.
Brent Smith: Yep.
Bree Wilde: How's that?
Brent Smith: Played Kia Forum too last year, first time ever.
Bree Wilde: Breaking records.
Brent Smith: Trying to, man. Yeah. I lost my mother at the beginning of this year, and she's always with me, but one of the things that we were able to do together as a family that I'm so happy about is that she was able to come up and see Madison Square Garden, which was awesome.
Bree Wilde: That's a good memory.
Brent Smith: So Madison Square Garden, and the other thing too is all of the parents met each other for the first time in the band, which was kind of wild that we all hadn't been in the same place before like that, but that was super endearing. That was the one time where our backstage was like crazy.
It felt good. There was like so much... I think Madison Square Garden has an energy either way. So did the Kia Forum. The Kia Forum was awesome.
Bree Wilde: Did you get a special cake?
Brent Smith: They did give us a cake. They were the sweetest, that group of the people. You get on the wall, the big red wall, what have you. We were right underneath Sabrina Carpenter, which was pretty cool.
Soundgarden, Lollapalooza, Tennessee, 7/21/96
Brent Smith: When I think of singers that I put at such a high pedestal, like my teachers, if you will, Chris Cornell and Otis Redding are definitely at the top. And then, I would put Billie Holiday and probably Ella Fitzgerald up there as well.
But I think about the fact that Chris Cornell did a record called Euphoria Morning that doesn't get as much praise as it should. It was his first solo record, and I saw him in a 500-capacity club in Nashville, Tennessee, like elbow to elbow, and it was life-changing.
But I also remember Lollapalooza, seeing Soundgarden for the first time. And that bill that year, Metallica was headlining, but it went the Ramones, Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden, Metallica. I remember just that whole experience was... I'll tell you this.
I remember I was at the top of this hill because it was in Newport, Tennessee, and what registered in my mind is that Rage Against the Machine had just come on, and it was just a dust bowl of fury.
Bree Wilde: Dirt pit.
Brent Smith: It hadn't been anything like that all day long, but what registered in my mind at the top of this hill was I was like, "I'm going to have to run through that in order to get to the rail because there was no way I wasn't going to get to the rail for Soundgarden." And I did, and I got to the rail. I sang that set with Chris Cornell note for note, just in the audience. I remember when they did Jesus Christ Pose, the sky turned black and like-
Bree Wilde: You're like, "How did you get the weather to cooperate?"
Brent Smith: I mean, it was wild.
Agreeing with Ice Cube on Rock & Roll
Brent Smith: When N.W.A was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which they 1,000% belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Ice Cube got up there and said, "Rock and roll is the spirit," and that's really what it is. It's not so much a genre of music.
Rock and roll is a way of life, I think, for a lot of people, and in that community, at least from what I know, anyone from anywhere is welcomed at any time.
So I think that it's more of like the way that you view the world and being open-minded and pushing the envelope and pushing back against boundaries and things of that nature and kind of going above and beyond what you think you're capable of doing.
Shinedown hits the road next month when their album is released. They'll be playing all around the USA including at the Field of Dreams in Iowa.
Get your tix on their website.
Dance, Kid, Dance Act II Tour
5/13 Resch Center, Green Bay, WI
5/15 Historic Crew Stadium (Sonic Temple Festival), Columbus, OH
5/16 Kohl Center, Madison, WI
5/18 Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, Sioux Falls, SD
5/28 Hertz Arena, Estero, FL
5/30 Yuengling Center, Tampa, FL
6/2 Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi, MS
6/5 Chartway Arena, Norfolk, VA
6/6 GIANT Center, Hershey, PA
7/11 Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort, Mount Pleasant, MI
7/17 Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, CT
7/18 MVP Arena, Albany, NY
7/20 SNHU Arena, Manchester, NH
7/21 Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
7/23 Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, PA
7/25 Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN
7/30 United Supermarkets Arena, Lubbock, TX
7/31 Weidner Field, Colorado Springs, CO
8/2 Don Haskins Center, El Paso, TX
8/4 Tucson Arena, Tucson, AZ
8/6 Toyota Arena, Ontario, CA
8/7 Michelob ULTRA Arena, Las Vegas, NV
8/9 Nugget Event Center, Sparks, NV
8/10 ExtraMile Arena, Boise, ID
8/14 Spokane Arena (Numerica Veterans Arena), Spokane, WA
8/20 Fargodome, Fargo, ND
8/21 Treasure Island Amphitheater, Welch, MN
8/23 Illinois State Fair, Springfield, IL
9/4 Field of Dreams Movie Site, Dyersville, IA
9/10 Petersen Park, McHenry, IL
