Rock Radio Juggernauts: Shinedown Pays Dues, Charting Hits On Way To Next-Level Arena Tour

Rock music is having a moment, yet again. Nu-metal, pop-punk, stoner rock and mascara-dripping emo heroes among other rock permutations of yesteryear, are reuniting, bringing the hits back and playing for some of the largest crowds of their career. Multi-generational fans eagerly lap up a steady dose of nostalgia after not getting a chance to see their rock idols for decades. Millennials are turning out in droves to see favorite acts from their formative years and relive the magic of their youth – and now have the disposable income to do so.

None of this applies to Shinedown.

“Over the years some have said to me before that the band is kind of an enigma in a way,” says lead vocalist Brent Smith, often referred to as “CEO” of Shinedown for his hands-on approach to everything from recording music to set design.  “I don’t really think that we’re too much of a puzzle. The awareness, or who we are, may not be out there in pop culture as much as it’s starting to be now, but we have something relevant and unique to get to the world in our music.”

And there are more people than ever lining up to see The Jacksonville natives, who are on the brink of the largest tour to date, “Dance, Kid, Dance,” with plays at some of the most prominent arenas in the country, including NYC’s Madison Square Garden, L.A.’s Kia Forum, Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, Minneapolis’ Target Center and Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena among others on the 36-show run.

Shinedown has made their way to the upper echelon of the music business with more than 20 years of hard work, a continuous stream of hits and radio success and touring without distraction, the need for greatest-hits sets, reunion shows or a prolonged hiatus. Even if not fully “out there,” the awareness of Shinedown is on the rise.

One recent example: is a collaboration with country phenom Jelly Roll at a recent benefit concert for Los Angeles firefighters and first responders at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Having toured together in 2022 on Shinedown’s “Planet Zero” tour, Jelly Roll joined Shinedown to belt out Lynyrd Skynyrd’s (also from Jacksonville) “Simple Man,” a classic cover long adopted by the band and a fan favorite that remains on its nightly setlist.  

The high-profile collab may have reintroduced some people to the band, but they’re not strangers to success on the airwaves, with 22 gold and platinum RIAA certifications to its name. Shinedown was honored in 2021 as the “Greatest Of All Time Mainstream Rock Artist” by Billboard for scoring the most No. 1s in Mainstream Rock chart history including “Save Me,” “Devour,” “Second Chance,” “Sound Of Madness” and “The Crow & the Butterfly.”

That momentum continues with two recent releases, “Dance, Kid, Dance,” and “Three Six Five,” both multi-format hits, with the latter knocking off the likes of Lady Gaga and The Weeknd as the most-added track on the Hot AC. The songs were released in January as tracks from Shinedown’s upcoming eighth studio album, the follow-up to 2022’s Planet Zero.

That sort of rock radio prowess in today’s music scene, where rock ‘n’ roll is often seen as a dated genre whose best days are largely behind, is nearly unheard of.

“Our goal is to never write the same record over and over again and our other job is to not write the same song twice,” said Smith. “Being a band that’s been around for 20 years and is consistently putting out music competing with the newest artists of the day is something I don’t take for granted, but at the end of the day, we go in and write the songs because we’re compelled to do so and we have something to say. The audience will see right through you if you’re not authentic.”

Modest about his own musical talent and giving credit to producer/bassist Eric Bass, longtime drummer Barry Kerch and guitarist Zach Myers, Smith characteristically credits hard work and elbow grease to getting the music to the masses, which he says he learned from seasoned label execs at Atlantic Records, the band’s longtime label. For Smith, who is known as a heartfelt lyricist unafraid of touching on topics like suicide, addiction and loss, it’s not about rock or any one specific genre, it’s about quality songwriting.

“Our songs aren’t just played on rock radio or alternative radio, they’re played on Top 40, they’re played on Hot AC; we have crossovers in a lot of different areas like AAA and also AC radio,” says Smith, who, unlike most TikTok flash-in-the-pans is clearly well-versed in radio formats and the medium’s continued importance. “Yes, it’s a rock band, but it’s more than just a rock band. If you’re in North America, make sure you build relationships at terrestrial radio. Streaming will get your music out there, but radio will give you a career.”

Smith employs a hands-on approach to all aspects of the Shinedown business, including touring, where the band has retained longtime crew members as full-time employees, and possessing a willingness to pick up the phone and call a promoter or venue and find out how to sell those remaining tickets.

“You need to know where all your people are, and you need to know about their family. You need to understand that this is a broader way of looking at the world because it’s your money and you’re responsible for these people’s lives,” Smith said. “I’m on the phone with the actual arenas and making sure that I see what their dailies are and what are their wraps.

“Next week I’m going to Little Rock, Birmingham, Alabama, and I’m going into New Orleans to spend the day. It’s lots of radio promotion, lots of awareness that the show is gonna be coming to these cities.,” he said. “If the ticket counts get a little funky, you go in and start talking to the marketing and arena people, find out where the loopholes are. You gotta go in there and be like, ‘Yo, what’s going on? Tell me why this isn’t moving, let’s get it to move.’”

Smith may be actually underselling it when he says he takes a “hands-on” approach to the band’s business, which, while maybe intense, is music to the ears of In De Goot Management, longtime promoters at Live Nation and FPC Productions and agency WME.

“That part is a blessing,” says Charlie Goldstone of FPC Productions, who alongside Live Nation’s Colin Lewis are promoters behind the “Dance, Kid, Dance Tour,”  which kicks off in April with 38 arena dates in the United States over two legs in spring and summer.

“Ten out of 10 days a week, I’ll take an artist who’s passionate, inspired, involved and has a work ethic like Brent Smith and the rest of his band,” says Goldstone, who’s worked with the band as a promoter since 2009. “I tell my team, nobody’s going to work harder than this band, which is why we all show up every day and do everything we can to make them successful. It’s fun to be a part of.”

The “Dance, Kid, Dance Tour” kicks off April 25 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, with the first leg scheduled through mid-May 13 in Birmingham, Alabama. Support comes from hardcore/punk band Beartooth, while the second leg, kicking off July 19 at TD Garden in Boston, features support from the Gavin Rossdale-fronted Bush, a headliner in its own right. The second leg includes major markets and arenas in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Detroit and others and are the band’s largest headline gigs in North America to date.

“The strategy is always ‘sell all the tickets,'” says In De Goot Entertainment’s Katy Lane with a laugh, but who is not in any way joking. She is tasked specifically with tour marketing for the management firm, which in this case means fully dedicated to Shinedown. “That’s Brent’s directive when we announce, and it is the mantra throughout.”

Led by president, owner and radio promotions guru Bill McGathy, the Shinedown management team also includes managers Liam Pesce and Gwyther Bultman and president and managing director Alison Shepard.

“The strategy is to have constant awareness, whether it be smaller campaigns with coffee shops and bars, and really tapping into the hyperlocal stuff on top of the big digital (marketing strategy) with Live Nation,” Lane added. “Tapping into the local communities and making them know that Shinedown cares about them is such an important thing for the band. The music always speaks for itself, and the Shinedown Nation are some of the best fans in the world, and the nation gets bigger and bigger.”

Regardless of market or support act, tickets start at a reasonable face value between $40 and $60, which Smith says was not that hard to work out with Live Nation and with support of major talent agency WME, where the band is represented in North America by longtime agent Ron Opaleski in North America and internationally by Lucy Dickins and Josh Javor.

“We just had a real talk with Live Nation about it and I was honest with them,” Smith said. “I said, guys, girls, ladies, gentlemen, we’ve got to figure out a way to make this reasonable. Let’s look at some tiers of how we can do it in a professional manner and in a realistic way. We want everybody to be able to make money and do what we need to do, but we don’t want to gouge the audience. We also want to be meticulous about where you can get the tickets and how easily it is to get the tickets and keeping the bots away. Live Nation were super great about being honest with us, about how we can do it and try to make it as reasonable for the audience member as possible.”

That doesn’t mean the production will be small, however.

“The band doesn’t do small, they only do bigger and better every year,” Goldstone said, adding that ticket sales are “as strong as they’ve ever been.” 

“Zach Myers and Brent designed the show, they built it, and every time they send me something, it’s like, ‘Yes, let’s do this!’” Goldstone said. “Part of the magic and the success has been creating great packages over the years, three or four-band bills and making sure we keep ticket prices affordable.”

Goldstone said there was never a question of whether to go big or bigger for the “Dance, Kid, Dance Tour,” with the artist development story growing every year and plenty of history to back up the routing.

“It’s going to be massively successful. We’re really excited about the way it’s going and looking forward to a lot of sold-out shows this year,” Goldstone said.

The band’s Pollstar tour history shows recent headline grosses reaching the $750,000 range in 2023, when the band toured with Papa Roach and Spiritbox. Hitting the $1 million mark this time around seems more than attainable, considering an average capacity of 16,000 tickets, which would mean an average ticket price of $62.50.

“Brent and the band are great partners, and when you have partners that work as hard as they do, and as hard as Brent does, it inspires you to work more on their behalf,” said Opaleski, who’s represented the band for more than 15 years. “We are excited to be working with them globally, where there is a lot of room for growth. There’s some work to do internationally, but they are committed to investing the time and energy outside of North America.”  

Shinedown is never “off cycle,” with new music and tour dates of some sort just about every year, but Shinedown’s Smith says it’s important to record when you have something to say and perform with intention.

“The way that we look at everything, Shinedown, myself and Barry and Zach and Eric, is that we just don’t ever arrive under any circumstances,” said Smith. “We’re always trying to outdo what we’ve already done. I started playing live when I was 14 years old and I’ve played for five people and I’ve played for 500,000. I genuinely love it and the band genuinely loves it, but we made decisions early on in our career when we could do it that we weren’t going to be the band that would continue to just show up with a backdrop and use whatever house lighting or house audio was in the building. You have to have something compelling for an audience to want to actually spend their hard-earned money on.”

Spilling the beans that “new music is coming quicker than you think,” with a full album ready to drop sometime this summer, Smith is also excited about the tour’s production.

“What I can share is to be ready to be surprised during the entire night,” he said. “If you want to be a part of the show, don’t worry, we’re going to make sure the audience is a big part.”