Nine years ago, I was introduced to Shinedown. The incredible voice of Brent Smith instantly made me love them. I loved their sound, their riffs, his voice, the runs he would take up and down. I got into them by their song "Second Chance." If you have not heard it, listen to it here.
It’s a song about making your own way in your life. Sometimes, yes, you have to say goodbye to live your life. And I fell in love with them because of that. They were reminding me that I have to make my own way. And that there are going to be times in my life where goodbye is the only option. Sometimes it makes a second chance. Listening to the lyrics made me see something different in these guys. I had heard other music before, but nothing quite like this. At 11-years-old, my music taste was:
1. Bryan Adams
2. Nickelback
3. Avril Lavigne
I had grown up in the backseat of my car listening to Bryan Adams. Finally, I heard Nickelback and became a little rocker girl! But then I heard Shinedown and there was something so passionate of how he sang. It was meaningful to him. As Nickelback has gotten older, I’ve noticed they have started having a different sound. From the start, though, Shinedown has always had something incredibly meaningful to say.
I notice today that artists are not involved. They are emotionally detached from their music. They write for the audience. What do people like? Sex. Drugs…in rock and roll. Mind you, I love listening to what many would call secular music. It appeals to me as a human being. But I also realized back then that Shinedown meant more than just sex and drugs. In fact, I don’t know of a song that specifically mentions sex or the act of it.
Shinedown writes songs out of passion, out of pain, out of anger sometimes, love. This is what makes them different from the rest. They are emotionally invested in the music. What I love about them is that every song has a good message. Everyone in some way can relate to their songs. Why? Because they write about things that matter and that everyone in their life will go through.
Brent Smith, the lead singer, wrote a song called Bully. It’s about a bully, in any aspect of your life. We all have that person in our lives that calls us names, makes us feel bad, makes us feel worthless. And he wrote this song not to condone violence, but to condone survival. They write about that which is uncomfortable. Subjects that we don’t normally talk about. And they give you a solution to the problem. They tell you to never give up.
“Fight, fight for the dying of the light.”
Going farther back, the Sound of Madness is also different. It’s hard rock and roll but also meaningful. It’s not just hard, head banging, rock singing about a steamy night. It’s a song to the one who gives up. Always complaining, no one owes him anything. He’s cruel to those around him, abusive, but has a reason for all of it because no one understood him. “You can sleep with a gun when you’re gonna wake up and fight…for yourself.”
On the same album, he sings "Second Chance" and "If You Only Knew." Brent struggled a lot in his life. He was addicted to drugs and was just not doing well. He was a good hundred pounds overweight. After his son was born, he turned his life around.
He wrote to his wife for never giving up on him. And I got the pleasure of hearing it played live. Now, I have been to live concerts before. I have seen them online in concert. But I have never once at a concert been so moved by what they said and how they said it. After the opening song, "Fly From the Inside," Brent took a second to do some crowd control. He got our attention, asked us how we were and that we were amazing tonight. That we sounded great and he loved our energy. He thanked us for being here, saying that each and every one of us was responsible for bringing them here. He could not have done it if it weren’t for every single one of us. He made me feel like I wasn’t just another person lost in the sea of faces.
Then he told us to look to our left. So we did. Then look to our right. We listened again. Then he said to shake hands with the persons with you and thank them for being here. They were here, same as you, to do the same thing you’re doing. “You’re at a Shinedown concert, now talk to each other. We’re a family.” And we were. If you’re a fan of Shinedown, you have an amazing family and community of people. It’s something that can’t be explained. It’s like if you’re from Texas and so is your friend, you have a connection with that person that’s unexplainable. That’s what it felt like standing, singing and having a great time at the concert with them. They were so involved with the crowd, but they still had the charisma to keep themselves together. They were amazing.
My favorite part of the night was the song "State of My Head." It’s from their newest album. They killed the lights suddenly. Brent did some more crowd control and told us to take our something that every one of us here today had. Their phones! He said, “No turn your flashlight on, let’s let this place up. Let me see what the stars look like tonight. This is your concert, now shine!” We roared and clapped and turned our flashlight on. He told us to sway our lights back and forth. We did during the whole song. The stadium was lit up a kind of white that is indescribable. It was stunning. All of us lit up the stadium. The only light was our own, and we were brighter than the lights themselves.
That’s what music should be these days, but so often it’s not the case! Shinedown has a purpose. A message in every one of their songs and it shouldn’t be any other way. Every song has to have a meaning. Sex is not a meaning. It’s physical and it doesn’t last forever. Shinedown appeals to your heart. Your ethos, what you think, how you are, why you are the way you are, and to respect others in their views…and demand they respect yours. They have a deep level of regard for one another and their fans. And he said, "God Bless You." Unashamed. They also do a ‘Tim Tebow’ and pray before they go on stage and sing.
That is why Shinedown is amazing. They have heart and soul in their songs. They really love what they do and they know that we are their support system. If we weren’t there, they wouldn’t do this.
