Shinedown frontman Brent Smith has opened up about an unusual lifestyle choice that has fascinated fans for years: the singer owns no physical home and lives full-time on the road, splitting his existence between hotels rather than putting down roots in one place. Speaking in a new interview, Smith described himself as “a true minimalist” and made clear that life as a permanent traveler suits him just fine.
In a recent conversation with LA Lloyd, the nationally syndicated host behind the “LA Lloyd Rock 30“, Smith reflected on a question that has followed him for much of his career. The vocalist, whose last permanent residence was in Thousand Oaks, California, between 2010 and 2016, recalled how people once interpreted his refusal to settle down.
“It’s interesting, man. Growing up and then getting the life that I asked for to actually be a reality, I remember my parents, in the first few records and album cycles, my mom and my dad, they were still working, and there were a lot of people that said to my mom, they were, like, ‘It almost seems like he’s running from something.’ And my mom was, like, ‘No, he’s running towards everything.’ And she came up with that, and I think it kind of floored people. And there used to be this idea that I was homeless, and my mom was, like, ‘He’s not homeless. He’s home free,'” he explained.
While Smith has no single place to call home, he was quick to explain that he is far from disconnected. His ties, he said, are built around family and the people he works with rather than property.
“I just look at why I choose to live the way that I do… My home is with my son, so I definitely have roots in Florida because of him,” he continued. “And I have roots in Tennessee. I’m in Nashville a lot. The last couple of years, I was in South Carolina with Eric [Bass] pretty much all the time. And again, when I had the house out in California in 2010 to 2016, I was doing a lot out in California. I was working on a lot of different things, obviously with the band, and it made sense. And then it just got to a point where I was, like, ‘I kind of did what I needed to do here. I need to move on.’ And for me, I’ve just never, ever had an issue being on the road.”
The singer also pointed out that his constant movement is tied closely to his role within the band’s business operations, which often requires him to travel at a moment’s notice.
“Obviously the four of us — myself and Eric and Zach [Myers] and Barry [Kerch] — are with each other a lot, and they all have home bases and things like that. But I’m also the one in the band that’s doing a lot of the behind the scenes with regards to the business, and what are the next steps and how are we gonna negotiate certain things. A lot of times, just to make an impact, I will fly to where I need to go. And if it’s overseas, I’ll just fly overseas. I can kind of get up by living the way that I do, I can kind of move on a dime. And it just works for me. Am I saying that I’ll never have a home base? No. I just don’t know where that is currently,” he explained.
When the subject turned to how he handles packing, Smith embraced the criticism that occasionally comes his way online, particularly the observation that he tends to wear the same things over and over.
“I downgraded my suitcases recently. It’s one of the things too, like people will say it online, they’re, like, ‘He wears the same thing all the time.’ And I’m, like, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ ‘Cause it works for me too.”
“For me, it’s pretty simple. I’m what is considered a — I am a true minimalist,” he continued. “So I don’t own stuff. I don’t have any kind of stuff. I don’t save necessarily anything unless it’s from fans that we’ll put in storage or in the wardrobe cases and things like that. But I really don’t own anything. And, again, that just works for me. Barry is probably a bit of the overpacker and has all these very meticulous things in the way that he does certain things, so he’s a little bit more of that. There’s a lot of, I think, creature comforts that he has to have, so he does things a specific way. Zach had a shoecase built for tour, so that tells you that right there. But Zach kind of has his very specific things that he likes and how he puts things together. Eric‘s probably a little bit more like me, where he kind of comes out kind of minimalistic. Eric kind of wears the same thing as well on a daily basis; he doesn’t really change it up.”
The singer added that years of touring have taught the entire group to travel light.
“I think more than anything we’ve learned over time to not overpack. Because a lot of times, too, when you’re out here… The beautiful thing about being on tour is you’re — I mean, yeah, and you gotta pay for it, but you can pretty much, when you’re out here, just send somebody out to get whatever you need,” he said.
“Tour is not the real world,” Brent concluded. “It’s kind of an interesting place to live in. It’s a lot of hard work. But you kind of learn what you can facilitate out here and how you pack. Over the years I think that the four of us have all kind of — I think everybody’s learned to be a little less of pack rats, ’cause you can kind of grab whatever you need while you’re out here.”
Shinedown‘s eighth studio album, Ei8ht, was released on May 29 via Atlantic Records. The record was produced by Eric Bass at his Big Animal Studio in Charleston, South Carolina.
The band recently unveiled their enormous “Dance, Kid, Dance Act II” world tour, a run that will carry them to 11 countries across 54 dates, with shows spanning North America and Europe at some of the biggest venues in the world. A rotating cast of supporting acts will join Shinedown along the way, including Coheed And Cambria, Black Stone Cherry, From Ashes To New, DJ Rock Feed and Those Damn Crows, each appearing on various dates throughout the tour.
