From Madness to Amaryllis: Interview with Zach Myers of Shinedown at Carolina Rebellion 2012

     The sweet Carolina sun continued to set on Saturday, as both the crowd and the bands got bigger and louder. In the late afternoon, I got a chance to sit down with Shinedown lead guitarist Zach Myers. With Slash shredding in the background, we were nearly shouting at each other throughout the interview! Myers and Shinedown were the headliners the 2012 Carolina Rebellion with a 10:45 PM set following Korn. Zach and I got to talk about the new record, Amaryllis, and the first single, “Bully.” It’s a powerful song that Zach wrote from personal experience growing up (co-written with singer Brent Smith) about a very disturbing problem among America’s youth today: bullying. We got to talk more about the record, and the band’s upcoming tour plans. Later on that night, Shinedown cranked it up and brought the house down, closing out the 2012 Rebellion with a bang. The band played a blistering set for 50,000-plus fans that had been rocking out all day long in the hot sun and dusty mosh pits. It was a shining end to a great day of rock ‘n’ roll.

     Shinedown’s fourth studio album, Amaryllis, debuted at #4 on the Billboard Top 200, selling 110,000 copies in it’s first week of sales. The band will shortly be releasing the second single off the album, “Unity,” and they also contributed a track to The Avengers Soundtrack, “I’m Alive,” which came out on May 1st. Shinedown has released 4 studio albums (all charting in the Billboard Top 100), 2 live albums, and 14 singles. To date, the band has sold over 10 million records worldwide. Rolling into summer, Shinedown is set to headline the 2012 Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival, along with fellow Rebellion rockers Staind, Adelitas Way, P.O.D., and Redlight King. Be sure to pick up a copy of Amaryllis, and get ready to CRANK IT UP with Shinedown on the Uproar Festival all summer long!