"I want to see if I can get Rick Beato to come out of retirement and write another song with us.": Brent Smith & Zach Myers on New Shinedown Music, Rick Beato & WWE’s Kane! | Interview

Brent Smith & Zach Myers on New Shinedown Music, Rick Beato & WWE’s Kane! | Interview

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When you've sold millions of albums, notched more #1 rock radio hits than almost any other band this millennium, and sold out more arenas than there are countries, you might think Shinedown would be content to sit back and coast on their achievements. But that's never been their style. As Brent Smith puts it, "We're always waiting for something to kick us in the ass. We can't lie back too much and enjoy the success." For Brent, Zach Myers, and the rest of the band, it's not about trophies or charts—it's about staying connected to the fans. That's always been the priority, and the quality of their latest tracks—"365," "Dance Kid Dance," and July's "Killing Fields"—proves it.

Fresh from a triumphant return to the Download Festival stage and just ahead of a rare UK Smith & Myers acoustic show, Guitar Interactive's Jonathan Graham caught up with Brent and Zach to talk about what keeps them fired up, the stories behind the new music, and why Shinedown remain as motivated as ever.

"We're always excited to play," Zach Myers says, sounding closer to a guitarist excited to be heading out on his first tour than a guy with a career's worth of gold records. That's not just a line. If there's a thread that ties the Shinedown story together, it's this insistence on staying connected. There are bands who talk about their fans, and then there's Shinedown. "I always say we have the greatest job ever," Brent Smith says. "If you're an actor, you make a movie, but you don't get to be in every theater. We get to perform these songs live—some people are hearing them for the first time. My favorite part after Download was seeing people tag us in videos of themselves crying; I reposted all of them from the Shinedown account. Seeing that reaction—' Dammit, Shinedown, you made me cry'—I love that. That's what music does. There were so many great bands that day, so to get that response felt incredible. For us, it's always been about authenticity. We never go into a writing session thinking about awards—we write because we have something to say. Our audience keeps growing, and we take that seriously. We're never going to phone it in."

It doesn't matter how many hits you've got—someone's always ready to ask if you're still "real." The joke is, Shinedown hear it too. "Dance Kid Dance," their recent single, isn't just another big riff; it's a shot back at every critic who ever questioned whether this band still knows how to rock.

"Yeah, it was," Zach Myers grins. "People wondered if we still play rock music. We play all kinds of music. There are always critics, but we love to take the piss out of people—in good fun. 'Dance Kid Dance' was written for us because we wanted a song like that with a wicked breakdown. We wanted to play it live."

That attitude runs through everything Shinedown are doing now. The band have always been unafraid of concepts—those big, sweeping album narratives—but lately, they're flipping the script. This time around, the rule is: forget the rulebook.

"It's a completely different process," Brent says. "Usually, everything is ready at once—album, artwork, singles. This time, we changed it on purpose. You can only follow a formula for so long, and we did it the same way for seven albums. This one isn't a concept record. The first two songs represent who we are right now. The next two tracks will build on that; it's more a collection, reflecting where we are now. The album should be announced late fall—around November—and, fingers crossed, released March 26th."

Call it creative freedom. Or maybe just the sound of a band who's done worrying about what's expected.

Something funny happens when you've been around long enough. Suddenly, the songs you wrote as a hungry upstart are connecting with fans who hadn't even started grade school when your debut dropped. Ask Brent Smith how that feels and he gets both nostalgic and blunt.

"I'm not sure we're there yet," he says, when the idea of generational legacy comes up. "I think bands like Deftones, Creed, and especially Limp Bizkit are experiencing that now. Maybe Nickelback, too. In 2028, it'll be the 20th anniversary of The Sound of Madness, and this year marks 22 years since Leave a Whisper. I honestly forget about that first record sometimes. I haven't listened to it in a while. It was our first, and I think about where I was back then compared to now. There's that classic thing: you have your whole life to make your first record, and if it's successful, only six months to make your second."

This isn't some "glory days" nostalgia. It's more like a reminder that for Shinedown, every year on the road, every crowd, every post-show social media flood is a fresh start.

If there's one band that can still make Shinedown feel like kids in the crowd, it's Def Leppard. When the subject of "365" comes up—a track that nods unapologetically to the Sheffield legends—Zach doesn't even bother to play it cool.

"It's not a Rockman, but it's a similar chorus sound," he says, a little sheepish. "We actually played it for Def Leppard recently. I thought we might end up co-writing with them. They said, 'Don't worry.' All of us are huge Def Leppard fans. We just saw them at a festival—played the second night after they played the first. We're hoping to tour with them next year. They couldn't have been nicer. The four of us even went together to watch their show, which never happens. Joe Elliott came up on stage—amazing. We felt like teenagers again. We posted a video of all of us singing along. As bands go, there aren't many better than Def Leppard."

One reason Shinedown hasn't slipped into self-parody? They never stop being fans—or students. You see it in the way they talk about working with Rick Beato, the producer and YouTube sage who's quietly become a sort of rock and roll confessor for the band.

"Yeah, a couple of times," Brent recalls, when the subject of Beato comes up. "He doesn't really write much anymore—he's focused on YouTube these days. But he's a very educated guy, and if you watch his channel, you can tell he knows what he's talking about. That's why he gets so many great guests; people know he'll ask interesting questions. There are always questions artists wish interviewers would ask, and Rick actually does it. He's built a fanbase who loves those stories, including me. The last clip I saw was about the drummer from Counting Crows not wanting to play 'Mr. Jones.' T Bone Burnett brought in someone else to do it. Those stories are great. Our old A&R, Steve Robertson, still talks to Rick a lot. I just got Rick's new number—I haven't called him yet, but I'd love to. Honestly, I want to see if I can get him to come out of retirement and write another song with us. I really hope we can make that happen.

We did 'Stranger Inside,' 'In Memory,' and he produced 'All I Ever Wanted' on the first album. We also did 'Son of Sam' for the Sound of Madness deluxe edition. We wrote together a few times, but some songs never saw the light of day. The most famous was probably 'Lost in the Crowd' from the first record, which he talked about on his YouTube channel."

Every great band has that moment when they finally stop chasing trends and start sounding like themselves. For Brent, that moment was as much about letting go as it was about holding on.

"My favorite thing about this band, besides what the songs mean to people, is that we have our own voice," he says. "I've never heard anyone say we sound like another band. I can do that with a hundred other bands, but not with us. That's what I'm most proud of—we're just Shinedown. When you hear his voice, you know it's us. When we started, there were so many active rock bands, but we've come a long way, and we can cross genres. That's how we set ourselves apart.

Early on, there was pressure to chase what was hot, so I tried different styles to get the band noticed. But Rob Cavallo helped me find my voice during The Sound of Madness. Craig Kallman at Atlantic gave Rob a stack of CDs, and one was Leave a Whisper. Rob listened, met with me, and said, 'We need to figure out who you really are—stop trying to sound like someone else.' He gave me the confidence to be myself."

What happened next was less revelation, more liberation. "It felt like an animal let out of its cage. That was a defining record for us—learning how to really make a record. Rob and Doug McKean (God rest his soul), who engineered a lot of our stuff, always reminded us that it's about the songs. That's why they wanted to work with us. And people don't realize—that record took a year to make, and it was expensive."

If Brent is the philosopher, Zach is the zen gunslinger. For all the talk about chops and technique, his only real "secret" is refusing to play anyone's game but his own.

"I've always tried to be myself on guitar," Zach says, matter-of-fact. "In this band, I'm not the lead singer—my voice is the guitar, especially live. On the records, Eric and I trade guitar parts. I make the part my own by playing for the song. It's never about me—I'm a team player. I'm from Memphis, so there's always a bit of blues in my playing. I'm glad people can recognize my style. Playing for the song is a lost art these days. There are so many talented players online, but having your own voice and writing songs is the most important thing. I don't want to be the fastest—I want to say something with the instrument."

Brent, never shy about giving his bandmate props, jumps in: "He also has to be really diverse live, because our records have so many layers. He has to figure out how to be three or four people live—playing acoustic and electric, using an EBow, and singing at the same time."

Zach cracks up. "There's a lot going on. People think those guitars are on tracks—they're not. That's all me."

Every few years, some scene gatekeeper gets riled up about backing tracks and authenticity. Shinedown's answer is as practical as it is unpretentious.

"We run string tracks, but that's about it," Zach shrugs. "People debate it all the time, but honestly—who cares? Queen did it. If you can't do the show without tracks, maybe don't do it. If you stopped our string tracks, the show would sound almost the same—you'd just notice the strings missing. When we make these records, they're a big piece of art. 'Second Chance' needs the orchestra. As for guitars—trust me, I'm playing them live. I wouldn't bother with three guitars and an EBow on a track. The challenge is fun."

If you want to know how weirdly wonderful rock stardom can get, ask Brent about the day WWE superstar Kane (Glenn Jacobs) handed him the key to his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee.

"Yeah, WWE has been great. Kane gave me the key to my hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee!" Brent laughs.

Zach paints the scene: "Kane—the wrestler—is mayor of Knoxville. We surprised Brent with a FaceTime from Glenn Jacobs (Kane). I texted our security guy, 'I'm going to ask him something ridiculous.' He told me not to ask Kane to come out to his theme music, but I did anyway. Kane agreed, so there's a video online of him coming out to his music—fire and all—giving Brent the key to the city. The key was made by my high school's wood shop. It was so cool."

And where do things stand with the pair's acoustic alter-ego project, Smith & Myers?

"Absolutely. There will be more Smith & Myers," Brent promises. "Right now, there's a lot of Shinedown activity, but Smith & Myers will always be a project for us."

The bottom line is, Shinedown may be arena giants, but they're allergic to autopilot. For every sold-out show, there's a story about a fan who got through a bad night because of their music—and that's what keeps them hungry, humble, and never—ever—phoning it in.

Shinedown's new single "Killing Fields" is out now.

For more information, visit shinedown.com

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