Shinedown’s Brent Smith on How Radio Play ‘Will Give You a Career’

Shinedown is something of an anachronism. The veteran rock band arrived at the tail end of the CD era, lived through the download era and has thrived in the streaming era. Over those years, radio became less important as digital platforms gained influence and short-form video apps such as TikTok turned into hitmakers. 

But while much of record labels’ promotional efforts have shifted to platforms including TikTok, Shinedown has remained adamant about the importance of terrestrial radio. Earlier in September, the band notched its 21st No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart with “Killing Fields.” In March, the band became the first artist with 20 No. 1s on the chart with “Dance, Kid, Dance” — two more than the next band on the list, Three Days Grace.

“Streaming will get your music played, but radio will give you a career, because it gave us a career and it continues to do that,” Shinedown singer Brent Smith tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. “Radio is a big part of the success of the band in North America.”

It helps that Shinedown is a rare rock band that appeals to a broad audience, which gives it airplay on a variety of radio formats. “We’re very, very lucky because we’ve always looked at Shinedown as everyone’s band,” says Smith. “So even from the beginning, that ideology of, ‘Is it a rock band?’ Yes, it’s a rock band. But that’s not everything that we are. Because we’re not influenced by just one style of music or one genre. We have a pretty vast palette. We swim in a pretty big ocean.”

Being a radio-oriented band is a lot of work, though. Smith explains that the group will tailor its touring and album cycles to allow visits to stations in cities across the U.S. “We need to be able to go in and say ‘Hi,’ say ‘Thank you.’” And rather than focus on a few big markets, Shinedown visits smaller markets that are nevertheless filled with rock fans. 

“I think it’s really, really important for people to understand that in this business,” he says. “Nobody owes you anything. You gotta work for it. And honestly, man, sometimes you have to take it. Are you willing to outwork the other people? I mean, that’s really what it comes down to. Sometimes it’s just pure tenacity more than anything.”

The payoff to decades of radio promotion is being able to sell thousands of tickets in most any market in the U.S.. Radio is local, Smith explains, and getting airplay helps build a fanbase in that market. On the first leg band’s recently concluded Dance, Kid, Dance Tour, Shinedown played in Des Moines, Iowa, which has a metropolitan population of approximately 540,000 people. On the tour’s second leg, the band played Boston’s TD Garden and New York City’s Madison Square Garden for the first time. 

According to Smith’s math, an arena filled with fans is the same regardless of where it’s located. “Yes, they’re different markets, but the reality is that the Des Moines arena holds 15,000 people, and the Boston [TD] Garden and Madison Square Garden [each] hold 15,000 people.”

Listen to the entire interview with Brent Smith using the embedded Spotify player below, or listen at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeart, Podbean or Everand.