It's been an historic entry into Country music for the band Shinedown, which has already found success across multiple genres because of their authenticity and sincere songwriting, and now have been firmly embraced by the Country music community.
LISTEN NOW: Shinedown with Katie Neal
Shinedown singer Brent Smith recently joined Katie Neal inside our Nashville studios at the Hard Rock Cafe to talk about how Country crept into the recording of their single, "Searchlight," how it felt to debut the song at the Grand Ole Opry, and much more.
"I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and when we were cutting the song, we were demoing it out, I think it was a bit more of a Rock ballad," shares Smith. "I just said, 'hey, listen, I'm gonna cut this with just the acoustic. Let me kind of re-sing it." The different approach from Brent rang very "authentic" for him, and the song began to ask for something different. "It was a different approach, but it was very authentic. It was very real, and it felt honest. So the song then asked for a banjo which in turn asked for a lap steel... and then a fiddle was brought in. And look, it's a very Country-esque Rock song, but for me when I heard it I was so enamored by the fact that it kind of is a style that we haven't done per se, and it was a bit more of a true homage to Country instrumentation and just the simplicity of the lyric and the way that it was sung. It made sense, and Country is starting to embrace it."
It doesn't hurt that the band got to debut the song at the Mother Church of Country Music, singing it as part of the venue's 100th anniversary, and introduced by Carrie Underwood. "It was a very, kind of, out of body experience, especially when you walk into that circle," Smith admits. "You can feel the weight of the moment because of who stood in that circle."
The Country connection is something that seemed inevitable for Smith and Shinedown, given the influence he was raised around. "I grew up, my granny had Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and probably out of all of them, Randy Travis was probably the loudest growing up," he says. Even now he's looking forward to meeting a few of the genre's heaviest hitters, praising artists like Ella Langley and HARDY. "I gotta give a lot of credit because I'm such a fan of his songwriting and again a very versatile individual, I haven't had a chance to meet him, but I hope I get to, I'm a huge fan of HARDY and just how he kind of is just this songwriting juggernaut for a lot of different styles."
To hear more from Brent Smith of Shinedown, check out the full interview above.