At Welcome to Rockville, Shinedown celebrates Florida homecoming
Editor's note: The Welcome to Rockville music fest returns to Daytona Beach May 15-18. News-Journal reporter Jim Abbott chatted with several of the acts scheduled to play.
With Jacksonville roots, Shinedown is no stranger to Welcome to Rockville, appearing as a featured act at the 2012 edition in that city's Metropolitan Park as well as numerous times at Planetfest, a radio station festival with a 10-year run that pre-dated Rockville's arrival.
'When it was Planetfest, it was sponsored by Planet Radio (107.3 FM) and we played that for many years,' said drummer and original Shinedown member Barry Kerch, who still lives in Jacksonville. 'We were the opening band after it first became first Rockville in 2012 and it was awesome.'
At this year's Welcome to Rockville, Shinedown's opening-night main stage headlining set on Thursday, May 15, will be part of a lineup of more than 150 bands on five stages over four days at Daytona International Speedway, a lineup that includes additional headliners Green Day, Linkin Park and Korn.
For Shinedown, it'll be an opportunity to make a full-fledged Rockville debut during its Speedway era after the band's 2022 set was cut short after four songs as series of thunderstorms pummeled the Speedway's infield.
Over two days that year, the threatening weather caused the cancellation of performances by two headliners, Guns N' Roses and Korn, among numerous others.
'We played in 2022, but we only did a few songs before the skies opened up and they stopped the show,' Kerch said. 'We did four songs and then the fire marshals shut it down. It was frustrating for us, but you can't control mother nature. She always wins.'
After more than two decades, Shinedown — Kerch, lead singer Brent Smith, guitarist Zach Myers and bassist Eric Bass — has established itself as a rock band with an unconsciously consistent knack for reaching the top of the charts.
The band's newly released single, 'Dance, Kid, Dance,' marked the record-setting 20th time that the band has landed a song atop Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. It's a stretch of hits that began with 'Save Me' in 2005.
More: Daytona Welcome to Rockville 2025. Full band lineup for mammoth heavy-metal festival
For Kerch, the milestone is a meaningful statement about the band's worth ethic.
'It's very much a mirror of the hard work we put into the band over the years,' he said. 'It's our legacy. We've never rested on our laurels. It's never good enough. It's always, 'We did that, it's wonderful. Now what's next?'
'How can make the shows better? How can we make this album better than the last one? We've been blessed to have wonderful fans that have stuck with us. I was 20 when this band started. There's not a day that I don't wake up, pinch myself and look in mirror because I was a smalltown kid from Florida and now I'm doing this.'
When Kerch met Smith, at the suggestion of a radio executive in Jacksonville, he had just graduated from the University of Central Florida in Orlando with a degree in anthropology. Hs career plan revolved around pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Arizona.
'I had moved up to Jacksonville after college and I was working for a company called Lake Doctors, cleaning lakes. I knew just enough chemistry to do that.
'I heard a demo from the Brent Smith Project and they were looking for a drummer. I loved his voice, so I went and auditioned on two songs.'
One of those songs, '45,' ended up on the band's 2003 'Leave a Whisper' album.
'The version of '45' that you hear on the record was literally my audition. That's what you hear. That was in 2001.'
The band's lineup has remained unchanged for nearly 20 years, a testament to the ability of its members to talk out issues, Kerch said.
'It's a marriage,' he said. 'When things are getting weird, we're like, 'Let's get in a room and hash it out.' We ride on same bus together, each meals together, we treat it as something special. That's not to say we don't have in-fighting, but we respect each other enough to say I'm sorry. And we move on.'
Looking ahead, 'Dance, Kid, Dance' and another new single, 'Three Six Five,' offer a tease to the band's next album, which is still coming together, Kerch said.
'I'd say we're 80-90% there. I'd say it'll probably be ready by the first quarter of next year. but we still need other songs.'
Until then, the band will be out on the road, a lifestyle that never grows old, Kerch said.
'It's the best gig on the planet. I like it as much now as I did in the beginning. I wouldn't trade this for the world.'
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Welcome to Rockville headliner Shinedown makes Florida homecoming
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