SHINEDOWN's BRENT SMITH: 'I Have To Talk To The Dude That's In The Mirror Every Day'

SHINEDOWN frontman Brent Smith spoke to "Two Doods Reviews" about the rigors of nearly non-stop touring and how he and his bandmates stay grounded through it all.

"Life doesn't have an instruction manual," the singer said (hear audio below). "And you have to find out sometimes, and the best way is trial and error. There are a lot of 'yes' men and a lot of 'yes' women in the industry; that's a given.

"There was a comment made back in the early 2000s that basically said, 'More money, more problems.' And that depends on the individual, in my better judgment," he continued. "Because at the end of the day, it's always gonna start with you. So I think the person that I talk to the most — and some people might think this is a little odd, but it's true — I have to talk to the dude that's in the mirror every day.

"A lot of people look to me in the organization to have a lot of the answers, but it's also how I delegate certain things.

"The band always tries to have complete control of the schedule — whether it's studio, whether it's touring, whether it's certain events, red carpet, award season; any of those things," he added. "You have to be the master of your destiny. Now, in the same breath, there are a lot of people around us that are looking out for our best interests and really looking at the scope of the band and what we wanna achieve and how we wanna present ourselves to the world. But I will one thousand percent always bring it back to the audience, which is very to the point with me. We have one boss. It just happens to be everybody in the audience. And the lucky thing for us, I would say, is that we have been in some really heavy situations over the years and some really scary situations. We kind of weeded out the people that are not here for the right reasons for the band, and the ones that have been here for the longest amount of time, because they've been able to grow with us, and they themselves have been able to grow because of us. As long as there's respect between everyone in the party, then, really, the sky's the limit. But at the end of the day, man, you've gotta put it back on yourself; you can't be a finger pointer."

SHINEDOWN's latest album, "Attention Attention", came out last year and features the crossover hit "Get Up" and the new single "Monsters". The band will kick off an extensive spring and summer tour on May 3 at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee.