SHINEDOWN:SAVE ME

SHINEDOWN is an American rock band from Jacksonville, Florida, formed in 2001 and founded by members Brent Smith, Brad Stewart, Jasin Todd, and Barry Kerch. The group has released three albums on Atlantic Records. They have issued popular singles such as "45", "Save Me", "Devour", "Sound of Madness", and "Second Chance". All of their eleven singles to date have climbed into the Top 5 of the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, making them the first to accomplish the feat. Shinedown's musical influences are Otis Redding, Pink Floyd, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Soundgarden, Iron Maiden, Stone Temple Pilots, and Foo Fighters.

In May 2004, Brad Stewart shed significant light on the formation of the band during an interview with Metal-Rules.com:

The band started with Brent Smith, our lead singer. He had a development deal with a different band on Atlantic and the label decided to move forward with Brent and not with the rest of his band. They allowed him to write with other people, develop his songwriting craft, and find the musicians that he wanted to work with. This led him to Jacksonville where he met Brad, the bass player, through a mutual friend of Brent’s A&R guy, local Jacksonville producer Pete Thornton. The two hit it off and guitarist Jasin Todd would join the band next.Jasin was in another band and wanted to concentrate on his guitar playing and didn’t want to sing and play any more in his other band. Jasin’s fiancé owned the studio where Brad and Brent were making the demos and Jasin got the chance to play with us. We just fit together. His attitude, style, and personality were exactly what we were looking for. Barry was our lucky #7 drummer. The 7th drummer we tried out. He blew us away. He was confident, powerful and had mad chops. We finally had a working band. We continued to make demos in Jacksonville and Orlando and Atlantic gave the green light to record our record. This was about 3 years ago.

Us and Them (2005–2007)
After the hugely successful Leave a Whisper and accompanying tour, the band went back into the studio in 2005 to record their second album. On October 4, 2005, the band released Us and Them, which went on to produce three singles; "Save Me", "I Dare You", and "Heroes". The lead single, "Save Me", maintained the #1 position of the Active Rock Charts for twelve weeks straight, setting a record for the band. The two other singles had similar success - "I Dare You" was notably performed on American Idol by Chris Daughtry. Us and Them was certified Gold by the RIAA in November 2006.

The album has three versions for release; the regular thirteen-track version, a limited edition with three bonus acoustic tracks, and a store-specific version with two bonus tracks: "Break" and "Carried Away". On itunes, there is a 25 track 'Deluxe' version, containing live songs and acoustic versions of songs. After the album's release the band took part in 2006's SnoCore Tour with Seether, Flyleaf, and Halestorm. After that the band joined Trapt for the Equinox Tour. The band then proceeded to play their first overseas concert at the London Astoria on June 6, 2006, supporting Alter Bridge. In the summer of 2006, the band then opened for Godsmack and Rob Zombie on their tour of North America, effectively ending their rigorous touring schedule.

On December 12, 2006, Shinedown played a concert in Knoxville, Tennessee at The Tennessee Theatre which was filmed for a DVD the band was expected release later in 2007. However, after a show in Waukesha, WI on July 21, 2007, the band made it known that the DVD was scrapped by Atlantic Records. "We don't want to put anything out if the band is gonna be presented in the wrong way," Smith said. "I might be able to bootleg it later on ... but as of now I don't see it coming out." In late 2007 after taking some time off, the band returned to studio to record a new album.

Shinedown was nominated for the "Alternative Rock" category at the American Music Awards in 2009.