Shinedown with Puddle of Mudd and Skillet

After touring for 23 months and playing more than 400 shows, you'd think the four members of Shinedown would want to rest. They did. For about two weeks.

Then it was back into the studio to start work on Us And Them, the hard-rocking Jacksonville, Fla., band's second album and the follow-up to their 2003 platinum debut, Leave A Whisper. 'We took two weeks off and then went right back into the studio. We basically wrote every song from scratch and recorded it, and here we are now with a new album,' says frontman Brent Smith.

Smith and his bandmates - guitarist Jasin Todd, bassist Brad Stewart, and drummer Barry Kerch - don't want to do anything but rock. For them, writing, recording, and touring go beyond overused terms like 'passion' and 'commitment' and are, in fact, their reasons for being. They have a lot to say and a lot to play, so it should be no surprise that they only needed enough time to do the laundry and maybe catch a little extra sleep before the desire to make more music brought them back together.

But it was on tour that Shinedown really established themselves following the release of Leave A Whisper. The tireless group shared stages with Van Halen, 3 Doors Down, Tantric, Saliva, and Life of Agony during their run on the road. And it was there that Smith says Shinedown recognized just what kind of band they were.
We're all different, and somehow we make a match,' Smith agrees. 'Nobody's singled out as the superstar or 'This guy' or 'That guy.' It's about a unity, a brotherhood, and about sharing what we've all been through and being able to take it to the stage.

Which, by the way, is where Shinedown will be taking it, again, as the new album reaches the 'them' that Us And Them is all about.