Barry Kerch says no fill-in can replicate Shinedown‘s chemistry, calling himself the best drummer for the band.
Barry Kerch has drawn a line between technical ability and the thing that makes a band work. Speaking on “The Ty Sherrell Show“, the Shinedown drummer said he does not consider himself the finest player in his field and doubts the category exists, but that nobody else fits his role in this particular group. The remark carries extra weight at the moment, with Shinedown midway through a North American run without bassist Eric Bass.
Kerch used a stretch during the pandemic, when travel restrictions kept him off the road, as his example.
“There’s a magic between the four of us. There’s a magic. Listen, I’m not the best drummer in the world. I’m not. I don’t know that there’s such a thing. And I tell people this, I am the best drummer for Shinedown. Put somebody else to play my songs, which happened once during the COVID era, and I couldn’t play because can’t travel, blah, blah, blah. So it was Dustin [Steinke] that filled in me for during COVID, and he’s a great drummer, played with Sixx:A.M I get back to the band and they’re, like, ‘He did a great job.’ And he did. It didn’t feel right. And the same as we’ve had fill-ins for Zach [Myers] and for Eric [Bass] when life happens. It’s weird on that stage when you have a fill-in. They’re doing a great job, they’re playing the parts, but I’m used to hearing it the other way. The sum of the each of us is something,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Bass announced on 10 July, the day before the tour opened, that he would not be joining the band. He described having gone through a serious mental health crash weeks earlier and said he had decided to be open about it rather than quietly disappear, given how much he and the band have advocated on the subject. He said he was receiving treatment and had no timeline for returning, but wanted to be certain he was safe first. Josh Sturm of Kairos and Zack Mack have been covering the bass parts since.
Guitarist Zach Myers addressed the absence in a recent interview with “Razor of Rock 102.1 KFMA”.
“This band is a full-time job, and it’s very busy, and we do a lot. We tour a lot, and there’s a lot of stuff going on. And for somebody like Eric who — we all have our kind of different jobs in the band. For me, it all comes to the touring side, like designing the production, designing the stage, making the setlist, kind of picking where we play, picking the bands we play with. On Eric‘s side, it’s writing, making the record, mixing the record — all these things. And I think that when you do that and you go back on the road, I just think he needed a little bit of a break. I’ve definitely needed those breaks before too. Luckily, they just kind of fell when we weren’t on tour. So I think it was important for him to kind of take a mental stock and take a step back and just kind of take some time at home, and that’s what he’s doing right now. I think he’ll be back sooner than later, if I’m being honest. But yeah, we had two incredible musicians — Josh Sturm, who’s married to Lacey Sturm of Flyleaf, and my buddy Zack Mack, who plays with Brent [Smith]] and I in Smith & Myers, who came out. And I told Eric, I go, ‘You gotta take some pride in the fact that it takes two people to fill in for you, because you do so many things.’ It’s been amazing, though, man. Josh knew most of the catalog, but pretty much both those guys learned 45 songs in four days,” he explained at the time.
Bass joined Shinedown in 2008 and produced their most recent album alongside playing bass and keyboards. His first solo record, Eric Bass Presents: I Had A Name, arrived in 2025.
Asked what assumption about him would be furthest from the truth, Kerch pointed at the gap between the band’s commercial standing and how he actually lives.
“I don’t know. That’s a hard question,” he told. “I would think they’d probably assume after the great success that we’ve had, that I live more luxurious than I do. I’m very simple. I don’t have a giant fancy home. I do have a nice car, but it’s not a sports car. I didn’t go through the midlife crisis thing. I think they’d be surprised about that. But I’ve always been an open book. That’s the thing with Shinedown, is there’s really been no secrets over the years, or at least for me, ’cause we’ve done so many interviews. ‘What do you like to do?’ I like to fish, I like to hunt, I like to be in the woods. Most guys won’t say that, ’cause there are people out there that don’t like that. Well, I’m just me. I love being a father. I love my daughter. I love my wife. I love my family. I’ve got a great family. I grew up with a wonderful family. I’m a very lucky man, I know that. I’m a very lucky man. My brother, my parents, everything.”
The “Dance, Kid, Dance” Act II North American leg opened on 11 July in Mount Pleasant, Michigan and runs into early September. Australia and New Zealand follow later that month, with European dates beginning 31 October.
The run supports Ei8ht, the band’s eighth studio album, released on 29 May through Atlantic. Bass produced it at Big Animal Studio in Charleston, South Carolina, and it was preceded by six singles: “Three Six Five” and “Dance, Kid, Dance” in January 2025, then “Killing Fields“, “Searchlight“, “Safe And Sound” and “Outlaw“. Shinedown hold the record for the most number one singles on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock chart.
Kerch started on a snare at seven, having agreed with his parents to master the fundamentals before getting a full kit two years later. He played in marching bands from elementary school through the University of Central Florida, where he took a degree in anthropology, and was the seventh drummer to audition when Brent Smith assembled Shinedown in Jacksonville in 2001. The two are the only original members remaining, alongside Myers and Bass, who both joined in 2008.
