Brent Smith

Infobox musical artist
Name = Brent Smith
Background = group_or_band

|Alias =
Born = Birth date and age|1978|1|10|mf=y
Origin = Knoxville, Tennessee
Instrument = Vocals
Genre = Hard rock Post-grunge Alternative metal Southern rock
Associated_acts = Shinedown

Brent Smith is the lead vocalist of the successful band Shinedown. Smith is known to have a wide vocal range and has claimed that he has never had any formal lessons or instructions. His biggest influence as a singer is Otis Redding.

Personal life

In late 2007 Brent found out his girlfriend was pregnant with his son. The Shinedown song "If You Only Knew" was inspired by the moment he received the phone call informing him that she was pregnant. The two became engaged following a July 9, 2008, concert in Knoxville, TN. Brent struggled with a cocaine addiction, but has now been sober for over a year. The song "Save Me" is about struggling with those addictions and fighting to overcome them to sobriety.

Early career

Before Shinedown Brent was the lead singer in a band called "Dreve", which operated in the East Tennessee area. [ [http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20080704/ENT/238786345/-1/RSS06&rssfeed=RSS06 Brent Smith brings new album to hometown fans] ] He was soon given a developmental contact by Atlantic Records, however, Brent left to find other musicians to form a new band which would become Shinedown.

hinedown

Collaborations

*He is featured on a song with hard rock band Saliva called "Don't Question My Heart", which is the ECW theme song.
*He is credited with co-writing the song "There and Back Again" on Chris Daughtry's self-titled debut album. [ [http://repertoire.bmi.com/title.asp?blnWriter=True&blnPublisher=True&blnArtist=True&keyID=8506378&ShowNbr=0&ShowSeqNbr=0&querytype=WorkID BMI | Repertoire Search ] ]
*Brent sings the background vocals on Theory of a Deadman's single "So Happy."

References

External links

* [http://www.shinedown.com Official website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/shinedown Shinedown's Myspace Profile]
* [http://www.smnnews.com/2005/09/01/shinedown-brent-smith-vocals/ Interview @ smnews.com]