SHINEDOWN
BRENT SMITH
LIFE LESSONS
From drunken run-ins with the law to urinating next to A-list stars, this is what life has taught Shinedown’s singer
WORDS: DAVE EVERLEY • PICTURES: JIMMY FONTAINE
BRENT SMITH IS mid-conversation when a figure appears behind him on the Zoom screen. It’s his grandmother. It turns out the Shinedown frontman is in a room in her house in Knoxville, Tennessee, the city where he grew up. “Any time I have 48 hours free, I’ll come and see her and my parents,” he says. “I’m the son with his laundry bag turning up at the door: ‘Surprise, I’m coming in!’” Family is a big deal to the singer, as becomes clear when he lays out what he’s learned from his 44 years on the planet.
I KNEW WHAT I WANTED TO DO WHEN I WAS TWO
“It sounds weird, but I knew I wanted to sing from when I was really, really young, even though I didn’t really know what singing or performing was. I just loved the idea that I could do something with my voice, and I wanted to feed myself with as much knowledge as I could about all different kinds of sound.”
LIKING METAL AND ROCK WHEN YOU GROW UP IN A RELIGIOUS FAMILY IS TOUGH
“I was brought up in a very religious household, and my mom and dad didn’t understand what was going on. Rock’n’roll was the Devil. I got a friend of mine to get their older brother to get me Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction, and I’d sneak into the closet at night with headphones to listen to it. I must have bought …And Justice For All by Metallica on cassette 11 times. They’d find it and throw it away; I’d buy it again. Then they’d find it and throw it away, and I’d buy it again.”