In a recent interview with Kerrang!, Shinedown’s Brent Smith opened up about his relapse after the ‘Amaryllis’ album and the tour that followed.
Brent Smith formed Shinedown in 2001 after leaving his previous band, Dreve. He later recruited others, and the band’s original lineup continued to make music for the first two albums. However, due to internal problems among the band members, the band underwent several lineup changes in the late 2000s.
The group has released seven studio albums over the years. The album ‘Amaryllis,’ which caused Brent Smith’s relapse, was considered the album that best represented who Shinedown was at its core as a band. Upon its release on March 27, 2012, the RIAA certified the album Gold for sales of over 500,000 copies.
When asked about his worst injury, Brent Smith mentioned his experience with substance abuse. Although the musician was clean for a few years, he relapsed after the ‘Amaryllis’ album and the touring. The rocker also noted performances where he would have to wear sunglasses on stage to cover all the lights to ease the pain in his head. He added that it took over a year to stabilize again.
The musician’s words on his relapse after the Shinedown album:
“I’ve been lucky in many respects. This is not an injury as such, but I come from a past of substance abuse. I had been clean since 2011, but in 2014 after the ‘Amaryllis’ album and the touring cycle for that, I relapsed. And I relapsed. But after I’d got off the drugs in 2015, it was as if someone had gone into my brain and pulled the wiring out.
There would be nights that I would walk on stage, and I would be singing wearing black glasses because I had to hide from the lights due to the pressure in my head. I’d come offstage, and it felt like my head was going to explode. It lasted for hours and hours, and I thought I was going to be like this forever. It took over a year to stabilize, but I’ve been clean since March 1, 2016.”
The band recently released their seventh studio album, ‘Planet Zero.’ The latest album has been delayed since the beginning of the year for fans to experience the new music across different formats simultaneously.
You can listen to the ‘Amaryllis’ album below.
