To celebrate the release of their latest single, "Searchlight," Shinedown joins us for a special Audacy LIVE, as the band talks with Rob + Holly about the making of the track, and performs the song exclusively inside our Audacy Sound Space.
LISTEN NOW: Shinedown talks with Rob + Holly
"The song just kind of came to us. It didn't take long to write, and when it came to, it just lent itself to that kind of thing," shares Zach Myers. "We're never like, 'this is the only chart we haven't been on. Let's go to this chart,' because then the next one we'd have to make like an R&B record. We've been on 5 so far."
"That's one thing I respect so much about the Country world is, a good song is a good song is a good song, and that's all we care about. Whatever the song lends itself to is what we want it to be, we're never gonna try to force something."
"The whole reason that we've been able to be able to be authentic and honest is because radio has allowed us to do that, our fan base has allowed us to do that." reveals Brent Smith. "You have to have something to say, and for 'Searchlight,' when we were in there, the initial first run of the song, it was a different song, and then I sat with it for a few days, went back into the studio with everybody, and said, 'let me re-sing this.'"
"I just heard it differently than what had been presented in the demo," adds Brent. "And, you know, me and Zach were born and raised in Tennessee. He's 901, I'm 865, so Memphis and Knoxville. We were raised on Country music. We were raised on a lot of different music, but for the song, I just went in and said, 'let me do this and just hear me out.'"
"We added a banjo because it asked for a banjo. We added a steel guitar and a slide because it asked for that, and it had more of an endearing quality because I sang it with a bit more of a draw. We have some people that listen to it that are in Country music that are like, 'this is very Country,' and then we have some people who are like, 'I don't know if it's Country,' and that's fine because at the end of the day we had to be honest with the song. We're a vessel for these songs. We have to be very open and allow the universe to talk to us."
For more from Shinedown on their relationships with Carrie Underwood and Jelly Roll, and stories behind other hits like "Second Chance," don't miss the band's full conversation with Rob + Holly and a special performance of "Searchlight" above.