Three Doors Down day-in-the-life /audio interview here now…

July 21, 2009

Posted by Karen Cotton, kcotton@wyomingnews.com

Three Doors Down fans read the day-in-the-life article in ToDo today! 

Learn all about what happens backstage, long before the band goes onstage. Three Doors Down performed at Cheyenne Frontier Days on July 17th. This story follows them as they do soundchecks and meet and greets as their crew deals with some of the grunt work that fans normally never hear about. Listen to the audio interview with Greg Upchurch and Todd Harrell of Three Doors Down below.

My audio interview with Todd Harrell, bass guitarist, and Greg Upchurch, drummer of Three Doors Down is here:
 

Click the MORE TAB to read the interview’s full transcript …

 

 

Music by Three Doors Down:

“3 Doors Down (self-titled album)”

“Seventeen Days”

“Another 700 Miles”

“Away from the Sun”

“The Better Life”

Three Doors Down Web site: www.3doorsdown.com

Three Doors Down Foundation: www.thebetterlifefoundation.org

 Three Doors Down has performed at Cheyenne Frontier Days three times: 2001, 2003 and 2009.

They kicked off the Cheyenne Frontier Days’ Night Shows on July 17.

The rock band formed in the small town of Escatawpa, Miss., in 1995.

Three Doors Down is known for their anthem “Kryptonite” and their hits “It’s Not My Time,” “Here Without You,” “When I’m Gone,” “Let Me Be Myself,” “Let Me Go, “Behind Those Eyes,” “Loser,” “Duck and Run,” “Be Like That,” and “Citizen/Soldier” – a tribute to the U.S. National Guard.

The current line up of Three Doors Down is bass player Todd Harrell, rhythm guitarist Chris Henderson, lead guitarist Matt Roberts, former Puddle of Mudd drummer Greg Upchurch and lead vocalist Brad Arnold.

Here is an exclusive interview with Upchurch and Harrell.

 Karen Cotton, Wyoming Tribune Eagle: What do you like the most about playing at Cheyenne Frontier Days?

Upchurch:

“This is actually my first time playing here, so I guess for the belt buckle.”

Harrell: “The belt buckle is a good reason to play here. I love that belt buckle that’s awesome.”

 WTE: “Question for Upchurch, you used to be with Puddle of Mudd right?”

Upchurch: “Yes, Mam.”

 WTE: “Why did you decide to join Three Doors Down?”

Upchurch: “Um, (laughs), I mean I don’t know how much I want to get into that. I mean I still get along with the guys in Puddle of Mudd, I still talk to them. I don’t know.”

Harrell: “We were on tour together, us and Puddle of Mudd. It’s kind of a crazy story. Nickleback and Puddle of Mudd was on tour together, and when we were on tour. Greg and me were always hanging out. At that time Daniel, our drummer after that tour, went to play with Nickelback. Greg was just a good friend of the band at the time.”

Upchurch: “And he was Canadian and they’re Canadian, I was born in Louisiana, which is right by Mississippi, so I have a lot of family down there, so that’s kind of where my roots are from. It just seemed to make a little more sense I guess.”

 WTE: “So when did you pick up your very first drumset? How old were you?”

 Upchurch: “Well see, my first drum set that I got was when I was probably ten, but I’ve been playing on drums since I was three or four. There are pictures with me with pots and pans and sticks.

“So, ever since I can remember I’ve been playing music.”

 WTE: “Were you in band growing up in school?”

Upchurch: “Oh yeah, I was in marching band, jazz band, symphonic band, every music class – half of my schooling was music classes.”

 WTE: “So, you went to school in Lousiana then?”

Upchurch: “Well, I was born in Louisiana but my parents ended up moving to Oklahoma.”

WTE: Question for Harrell: Where are you from? “South Mississippi”

(Crew man interupts, opens door to bus, drops something off, apologizes … leaves)

 WTE: “How long have you been playing bass?”

Harrell: “I’ve been playing bass since three doors started. I actually started playing the guitar at the beginning of the band. I’m from a small town and we didn’t have any musicians. They wanted a bass player, so I went and bought a bass. I’ve been playing since 1995.”

 WTE: “What was your first guitar?”

Harrell: “It was a Yamaha.”

 WTE: “Was it an electric or acoustic?”

Harrell: “It was an acoustic. Electrics are easier to play, you actually have to play the acoustic.”

 WTE: “What do you like about being the bass player for three doors down?”

Harrell: “The bass is fun, man, I just like bass, like to play along with the drums, when we lock up together.”

 WTE: “Do you guys ever have mishaps happen while you’re on stage?”

Harrell: “Yeah all the time.”

(They both laugh.)

 WTE: Like what?

Harrell: “Usually things like you’ll be jumping around and you just go blank for a moment.”

Upchurch: “I fell off of the drum risers.”

Harrell: “I fell off the stage one night.”

Upchurch: “One night, we were walking off stage, and we have those road cases that all of the stuff goes in and Todd was going to hop on top of it but he didn’t see that the lid was open.”

 WTE: “Have you guys ever gotten hurt when stuff like that happens?”

Harrell: “I’ve gotten hurt a few times. I hurt my hand one night when Greg hit me with a drumstick.”

Upchurch: “It was an accident.”

Harrell: “Yeah, it was an accident, but he did like that with the drumstick, and it hit me. “Hit my hand and it dislocated my finger. Then I fell backstage and messed my leg up.”

Upchurch: “I hit myself in the head a lot. I get these injuries all of the time.”

  WTE: “So, what do you guys like about being famous?”

Upchurch: “I really don’t think we’re all that famous.”

Harrell: “I like being where we’re at right now. I like traveling and seeing different places. Being in a band like this, it’s one of the perks. You get to travel around and play places like this, see some cool sights, man. Meet some cool people.”

Upchurch: “The only people that ever recognize us is when we’re at our own concerts, you know. I’m going to fly home tomorrow and I guarantee that nobody is going to come up to me and say oh my god. No, that’s not going to happen. It’s not like I’m Johnny Depp walking through the airport.”

 WTE: “So, is that more of a lead singer kind of thing?”

Upchurch: “Yeah, you know he, (Brad Arnold), gets, it more, I mean half the time my hair is in my face, or I’m not even on the screen and I’m cool with that.”

 WTE: “Is it still hard to deal with media and things that happen like that?”

Harrell: “You just deal with it, when it happens you deal with it.”

WTE: “Are you working on any new material right now?”

Harrell: “We’re always throwing ideas around, we’re not really in the writing process right now. We’re getting ready to come off the road here in a bit. We’re going to go back out in two or three weeks in August. Then we’ll come off the road then we’ll get to really writing the new record. Hopefully by summer of next year we’ll have a new record out. It won’t take as long as it did last time.”

 WTE: “What do like the most about the band having a foundation, (The Better Life Foundation), and all of the charity work that your band does?”

Harrell: “I’m proud to be able to say that we helped people you know with things – I’m proud of that, sure the rest of the band is.”

 WTE: (To Upchurch) “How do you feel about it(foundation)?”

Upchurch: “It’s great, anytime you get to do anything to help anybody out obviously.

“A lot of times, I’ll have friends, well my mom, she’ll have guitars, and I’ll get them signed by the band for something we don’t even donate to and it gets auctioned off to help someone with their hospital bills that we don’t even know. My mom’s friends with so and so, lot of stuff besides the things that people know about, we try to help individuals out as well as communities.”

WTE: “You guys also helped out Hurricane Katrina victims (with your foundation), what was that like being able to help them?”

Harrell: “That was cool, man. We were able to see what we’ve done there with the food drives with all of the kids giving us cans at the shows with 18 wheeler trucks full of food going back to the Gulf Coast. You know being able to do things like that and being in a position to be able to do that is good.”

 WTE: “Now didn’t someone in the band lose a house (during Hurricane Katrina?”

Harrell: “Yes, Chris (Henderson, rhythm guitarist), lost his house and all of his vehicles. Chris was one of the fortunate ones. He had money to replace it. A lot of the people back home didn’t have nothing, he was fortunate, but he did lose a house.”

 WTE: “Is he rebuilding?”

Harrell: “No, he went back and sold it and moved to Nashville and said, ‘I’m moving out of there now.’”

 WTE: “So do you guys all live in Nashville then?”

Harrell: “No Greg’s out in L.A.”

Upchurch: “Yeah, I live in Los Angeles, and Matt’s (Roberts, lead guitarist), is in Alabama.”

Harrell: “And I have a place in Biloxi, Miss. still and I have a place in Nashville.”

 Upchurch: “Chris is in Nashville.”

 WTE: “So, do you guys get along all of the time?”

Harrell: “Yeah, we get along pretty good.”

Upchurch: “But, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

“When you’re this close to everybody all of the time it’s nice to have the breaks and go home.”

 WTE: “Is it hard going from venue to venue having to deal with new people and situations?”

Harrell: “Generally that’s for the crew guys to handle we just go out and play. We go meet people like the media and

Upchurch added: “We do the meet and greets.”

Harrell: “We don’t have to deal with too many people. The crew guys get to do all of that.”

 WTE: “With your song ‘Citizen/Soldier,’ with that being the theme/tribute for the National Guard, do you guys see a lot of military at your show?”

  Harrell: “Yeah, we do. The military has grabbed onto quite a few of our songs. ‘Here Without You’ and ‘When I’m Gone.’

“A lot of the military wives always come up to us and say we listen to your songs when our husbands are gone. That’s cool, I like being able to say that, that’s cool.”

WTE: “What about you, Greg?”

Upchurch: “I think it’s great. A lot of the times I’ll be in the airport and I’ll see guys in their fatigues and I’ll go up to the guys and thank them and they look at me like I’m crazy. Like alright, I think more people should do that, I shouldn’t be getting that response, you know. But, yeah really cool to get to know these people and get to know the generals, and stuff like that. You get to meet really interesting people. See a lot of things, especially young ages that we see.”

 WTE: “Has your band ever done a U.S.O. tour?”

Harrell: “We did one, an NWR tour, right in the beginning of writing the song – did you have a moment during that time? The whole trip was cool, we got to go to all of the bases and see the guys. Getting to hang out and see what they do, their day to day jobs.”

 WTE: (question for Upchurch) Any part of the trip that you really liked?

Upchurch: “That’s when I was in Puddle of Mudd.

“But, I went to Iraq to play with them and then I’ve gone to Walter Reed a couple of times. Of all of the military stuff that’s probably my clearest memory, my biggest memory was going there seeing some of these people that were pretty messed up. It’s pretty heavy.”

 WTE: “Was that hard to deal with?”

Upchurch: “Well you’re in there and you know they’re taking you in and before you go in there let me tell you about this guy before you go in there.”

Harrell: “You’re like do you want to go in there …”

Upchurch: “They’re just telling you be prepared and you’re like … it’s exhausting and left there, oh my god. Some of the kids that are in there have lost arms and legs they’re pretty upbeat, some are a lot more serious than an arm and a leg, there’s stuff that I didn’t even know you could be alive, some of the stuff I saw.”

 WTE: “How do you deal with stuff like that?”

Upchurch: “I don’t know you just deal with it. You’d have to ask them. I’ve got it in my memory but that’s the person that’s going through those things.”

WTE: “Do you guys write songs after dealing with those kinds of moments?”

Harrell: “We always write songs.”

Upchurch: “Well that’s more of a Brad question because he writes all of the lyrics. You know so, all of his lyrics come from some sort of experience or another.”

 WTE: “So do you guys when you’re together with the songwriting process, he probably comes to you with lyrics then?”

Harrell: “Well sometimes we have the music, other times he has the lyrics.”

 WTE: (To Harrell) “So do you start off with a guitar lick? or ?”

Harrell: “Yeah, or maybe a drum beat.”

Upchurch: “It’s all a process.”

 WTE: “What do like the most about being here at Cheyenne Frontier Days?”

Upchurch joked: “The smell of horse s—”

Harrell: “I’m just ready to get out there and play, man, this is our last show for a while, so I’m looking forward to going out there and rocking.”