Shinedown guitarist Zach Myers has issued a potent challenge to the critics of backing tracks in live rock music, arguing that the debate is often fueled by hypocrisy and a failure to acknowledge that some of the genre’s most revered bands pioneered the practice. In a new, wide-ranging interview with American Musical Supply, Myers drew a firm line between using supplemental tracks for enhancement versus using them to fake a performance.
The guitarist’s main defense against what he calls the “get off my lawn” critics rests on historical precedent set by rock royalty.
“I see all these bands that, like, it’s become this cool trend to brag about not using tracks. Like, shut up, dude. Who cares?” Myers stated (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “Queen did it. So, shut up. Don’t say anything else. If Queen did it, shut up.”
He earlier elaborated on this point by citing iconic examples. “You think Queen did the bridge to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ live? No! They walked off stage! They weren’t even on stage when it was happening,” he said. He also pointed to Def Leppard, whom he credits alongside Queen as early innovators of the technique. “You think when you hear [the opening lines of Def Leppard’s ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’], ‘step inside, walk this way,’ you don’t think there’s a vocal track going? Shut the f**k up. Come on, man.”
While defending the practice for supplemental sounds, Myers clarified that he shares the audience’s disdain for bands who mime their core instrumentation or vocals. “If you’re running vocals and you’re running guitars and you’re not playing things, I’m not for that,” he explained. “If there’s a guitar solo going on and the guy’s not soloing, dude, that’s bulls**t. I agree with that… If you’ve got a guy up there that’s not singing at all and he’s just miming, that’s bulls**t. I one thousand percent agree with that.”
For Shinedown, Myers explained, tracks are used to replicate the orchestral elements from their records without having to alter the band’s core lineup. “People wanna hear the symphony on [the Shinedown song] ‘Second Chance’ [when we play it live],” he said. “We run 40-piece orchestras for ‘Second Chance’ and ‘The Crow & The Butterfly’ and ‘A Symptom Of Being Human’… We don’t wanna hire another bandmember or two more bandmembers.”
He also expressed confidence that his own band can perform without the enhancements, noting that their track system has failed mid-show before without the audience noticing. Earlier in 2024, he issued a direct invitation to vocal critics like SiriusXM host Eddie Trunk to witness it for themselves.
“Come to our show, grab a set of in-ears, put ’em in and we’ll mute the tracks that are rolling and you won’t be able to tell a f**king difference,” Myers challenged. “I agree that if bands can go on stage and not do it without it, that’s a problem. I can’t tell you the amount of shows that our tracks have gone down and no one knows.”
