SEETHER's SHAUN MORGAN 'Felt Almost Sick' Before Playing First Show In More Than A Year And A Half

Last month, SEETHER joined 3 DOORS DOWN on the latter band's "The Better Life" 20th-anniversary tour as special guests on select dates throughout the summer. These shows kicked off on July 17 in Huber Heights, Ohio and are seeing the bands play amphitheaters in major markets across the U.S.

Asked in a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station what it felt like to back performing in front of crowds again, SEETHER frontman Shaun Morgan said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Oh, man. I've gotta tell you the first couple of weekends, it was a little bit nerve racking because we hadn't done it in so long. In fact, the first show back was our first show in front of an audience in 648 or 649 days. That's the longest we've ever gone [without playing a show], I think, since 1999. So it was kind of a trip, man. It was the first time I felt kind of almost sick before going on. We just did a couple of shows to sort of ease our way back into it, and then for the following weekend since then, it's been a little bit easier. And it's just been fun again.

"The thing that I have to consider is that I haven't sang in so long," he continued. "So when I go out there, I've gotta take it easy for the first couple of shows so I don't blow my voice out; then I have to recover. So I did. I took it easy. But at least I had three days at home, so whatever damage I had done was fine. And I went back out, and there was still a little bit of residual damage from all the exciting yelling from the first shows. But then, by the third weekend, my voice was great. So my confidence is much better on stage, much higher on stage, if I can sing properly. So, yeah, it's been great, man. I think this upcoming weekend, it's our fourth week out already, which is crazy to think about. But I'm excited."

Morgan also spoke in more detail about the emotions he and his bandmates felt at the first show they played in more than a year and a half. "It was this elated feeling that I had when I walked out," he said. "It immediately overshadowed the illness and the sickness and the nausea and the fear — all that stuff dissipated when you had all these people. And I think the first one back, we had about nine or 10 thousand people. So it was quite a large audience. As soon as you go out, I just said, 'Woah! This is amazing.' I'm not one to talk much on stage; I don't really have a lot to say. But you sort of have to take a moment and realize that this is actually real, that we've been talking about this for so long. It was postponed so many times over the course of so long that it never felt like it was ever going to arrive, and now that we're actually doing it, yeah, there's a sense of surrealness about it that you go, 'Is this real? Is this just an elaborate dream?' But then you figure out that it's real. And people had fun, and we had fun. And it feels good to be quote-unquote essential again."

SEETHER released "Wasteland - The Purgatory" EP digitally and on CD on July 30 and will make it available on vinyl October 22 via Fantasy Records. The five-track set includes the fan favorite "Wasteland", from the band's most recent album, and features three never-before-heard songs, and an alternate/stripped down version of "Wasteland". Written and produced by Shaun Morgan, engineered by the band's newest member Corey Lowery, and mixed by Matt Hyde, "Wasteland - The Purgatory" EP follows the August 2020 release of SEETHER's eighth album, the acclaimed "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" ("If You Want Peace, Prepare For War.") The first two singles from the album both hit No. 1 on the Active Rock and Rock charts: the anthemic "Dangerous" and hard-hitting "Bruised And Bloodied".