Zach Myers is living the dream. The Shinedown guitarist is wearing dark shades, a retro Tina Turner T-shirt and is enjoying some well-deserved R&R on a fishing boat when he checks in via video call.
Shinedown have just completed a long run of spring/summer dates on their Dance, Kid, Dance Tour 2025, shared a trio of singles from their as-yet untitled eighth studio album, and in the process have edged out the likes of the Foo Fighters et al to claim the record for most number one singles on Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart. Things are more than okay.
Their forthcoming debut at NYC’s Madison Square Garden has Myers “nervous, excited, scared” in equal measure but all things considered he looks pretty relaxed. Myers admits there is so little drama that he had taken to contradicting frontman Brent Smith in the press as to when this forthcoming album will be released (Having spoke to both, set your calendars for March 2026).
You might find a less relaxed Eric Bass on the end of a video call. He’s producing the record. Shinedown are tracking it in between touring commitments. Myers can pop in, do a little bit more, pop out again. Same for Smith and drummer Barry Kerch. Bass, whose primary role is bass guitar, has got to live with this thing in his head – all those tracks, all those tones – and managing this kind of project is not easy.
“Eric is a focused human being, and very driven, and so when he starts something he wants to see it through and finish it,” says Myers. “This record has been everything but that. So I feel for him it is probably a nightmare.
“For me, it is very enjoyable. I get to go home or go on tour and then come back and do my stuff, write a little bit. You’ll go away for a little bit, you’ll come back and reconvene, do a couple of songs and then go away.”
Myers might enjoy a little sport in the press with Smith but they are both in agreement when it comes to Bass; he’s the brains of the operation. So when you hear Myers take a solo and there’s this weird pitch-shifting effect on it making his electric guitar somehow even more electric, that’s Bass. The music to Three Six Five came together in 20 minutes, Bass sitting with an acoustic guitar and Smith feeding him lyrics. “He’s literally a genius,” said Smith.
“Eric’s such a better guitar player than me,” says Myers. “He hates when I say that. I get credit for so much stuff on guitar in the studio that Eric should probably get credit for.”
It works both ways. There will be times when Bass will hand Myers his instrument because his feel for the track is better. Whatever works. There are no rules. Like how Shinedown subvert rock music composition 101 and just start a track like Three Six Five in the verse. No intro. No throat clearing. What’s with that?
Here, Myers explains why. He also shares some more details about his forthcoming signature guitar from PRS, explains why Paul Reed Smith is a genius, and admits that the greatest guitar lesson he ever got was from BB King and the late blues guitar icon didn’t need to say a word for it to sink in.
There might be a world of difference between Live At The Regal and Shinedown’s latest singles – Dance, Kid, Dance, Three Six Five, and Killing Fields – but the Myers says King’s influence is right there.
Something we were speaking to Brent about the other week was how you will just start a song in the verse, like on Three Six Five, and on this latest single, Killing Fields.
The two things that we probably argue about the most – not even argue, that we ponder on the most – are what a song is called and how a song starts
“Honestly, we try to do every record different. This record obviously isn’t a concept record – because the last two were – I always think there is something thematically going on. Like, there’s a couple of songs on that where once you start you’re in.
“It catches people off-guard, which I’m a fan of. I don’t think people are expecting the song to come in straight away. Only about 15 people have heard Killing Fields, so I’m glad you got to hear it.”
It’s like an ambush.
“Yeah!”
But I bet you’ve all been in the studio tearing your hair out over an intro and, here you are with Three Six Five, with Killing Fields, you don’t need one at all.
“The two things that we probably argue about the most – not even argue, that we ponder on the most – are what a song is called and how a song starts. So it’s like, ‘You know what? Let’s hit them in the face right away!’ And this is one of those songs. Three Six Five is a very emotional song, and this one, Killing Fields, is too, but for a different reason.”
Going back to Three Six Five. It’s like this love letter to eighth notes. That pulse. There’s not too much going on in the verse because it is about the vocal but what are we hearing to complement that vocal?
“For Three Six Five, Eric just had that kind of Rocktron, ‘80s, crystal-clear guitar with a chorus, and it sounded so cool that it was like, ‘Oh, man! This works so well.’
“I remember, when he sent me the first little riff thing for Killing Fields, it was like, okay, this is really cool, and the way we did it on the record is almost, when it goes into that pre-chorus, is almost out-of-tune acoustic guitar, kind of wavering, and then you are hit with the chorus.”
We all write, but if Eric’s in the studio and I’m having trouble with a part, I will literally just hand him the guitar because he is such a good guitar player
From what Brent said, a lot of the big songwriting breakthroughs come from Eric.
“We all write, but if Eric’s in the studio and I’m having trouble with a part, I will literally just hand him the guitar because he is such a good guitar player.
“Eric is such an incredible guitar player, and he’s the producer, so he is always sonically chasing something. We all are. Any musician is. We’re always after what you’re hearing in your head and you never find it.”
That’s what keeps you at it. If you could find it, it would kill the magic.
“It’d be boring. It’d be boring if you could find it. We’ve gone out so many times and you start, and you go through 20 amps, then you end up back at the first one. I can’t count how many times that’s happened.”
You sometimes start your videos with a quote, but with Dance, Kid, Dance you quote Kurt Cobain, Smells Like Teen Spirit. Was he or Nirvana on your minds going into that song?
“We try not to be influenced when we write. I am such a diehard. I’ve listened to more music than probably anyone else in the band, and even when I write I try to go on a little break from listening to music. Because I think you can’t help but be influenced. I don’t know where the quote for the video came from – it was probably Brent.”
More to the point, what’s interesting about Dance, Kid, Dance is that it is textbook example of how you like you use space in your recordings.
“That’s the most important thing on a record.”
Tell us about that. Where does that come from?
“I got started when I was 13, got signed when I was 14, and I did a tour with BB King. It was me and two other prominent guitar players, and BB. I learned this early; it’s about the notes that you don’t play.
“Those are the most important notes, the ones that you don’t play, because we would play two songs at the end of the night, and everyone would get their chance to do their thing, and try to show off, and I remember one night I really felt like I had something.
“It was all friendly, but I was like, ‘Man, I think I’ve just won the battle tonight!’ I was playing a little faster, which was not really my style – I am a lot more bluesy – and then the next kid went, the next kid went, and then BB went. I believe Tony Coleman was playing drums at the time. BB looked back at Tony Coleman and Tony Coleman stopped on a dime and BB held one note for 12 bars. And then the drums came back in.
“I set my guitar down, and I walked off the stage, because that was the biggest musical lesson I’ve ever learned, and there was not one word spoken. It’s about space. People don’t realise that less is more.”
More is sometimes easier to do than less.
“It’s funny, because I’m known as this guitar player, right? Like, I’m known as the guitar guy in Shinedown, but I am not a shredder. I don’t do these things that are impressive. I remember I did a Guitar World video one time and I was playing Cut The Cord. They wanted to do a playthrough of Cut The Chord.”
It’s like, ‘This guy sucks!’ Whatever, man! The song was number one for three or four months so say whatever you want to say about me sucking
Oh yeah, I’ve seen that video.
“Dude, read the comments on that video. ‘This guy is not Mark Holcomb.’ ‘This guy is not Yngwie.’ ‘He’s not…’ Y’know, I’m like, ‘Yeah, man, but that song was number one for 16 weeks so I don’t need to be any of those guys.”
Well, also, you can only be you. It’s literally all you or any of us have got that’s our own.
“Can you tell me one song where guys are just noodly-noodly-noodly that you’ve heard on the radio? Like all this noodly sweep-picking? Dude, there is a space for it. I actually enjoy listening to it. But it’s not what I am trying to do.
“I’m trying to make someone cry, or make someone feel like if they lost someone that the person is still there, or that they can fly, or that they can jump off a building and land on their feet. Or they can come out of a heartbreak. That is what I’m trying to do.
“So those videos are really funny, if you watch that video of me doing that, it’s like, ‘This guy sucks!’ Whatever, man! The song was number one for three or four months so say whatever you want to say about me sucking.”
You didn’t do too badly after all. How do you get the tone on the solo to Dance, Kid, Dance? You’ve got a doubler/harmoniser type effect there.
“Yeah, once gain, Eric Bass! The genius of Eric Bass. We discovered the red [DigiTech] Whammy pedal on The Sound Of Madness, and that’s the secret weapon. You don’t have to use it in the down position. It’s just about turning it on, and maybe turning it to that left side, where it’s octave-up or octave-down, or two octaves up, two octaves down.
“There is a way to do that is very creatively become our sound, which works out very well for us. Again, the genius of Eric Bass is always in the song somewhere.”
So Michael Schenker has the cocked wah pedal. Eric Bass has the cocked Whammy?
“A hundred per cent. Michael Schenker has that real throaty tone with the wah in the middle, which I have always enjoyed. Like, I love the Bad Horsie wah – that Morley is amazing – but I want one that I could just leave in a position and walk away.”
But even when you leave the Whammy in position, it still sounds like there is movement there. There’s something strange with the overtones and the pitch shifting.
“Yeah, absolutely, and we did that with Dead Don’t Die, too. If you listen to Dead Don’t Die, I’m playing the solo and Eric is actually working the pedal and turning knobs. It is very hard to recreate live. But yeah, Dead Don’t Die was the same thing. I am doing the solo. Eric is just working the Whammy pedal.”
What are the main amps on the record?
“Two Marshall 800s that we’ve had for a long time. A Kemper, an Epiphone. I forgot the name of the Epiphone amp but it gets a lot of work. A custom made Bilco that Eric has. I think that’s mostly it for the record. We have a Diezel in there; it doesn’t get used a ton. An old Dual Rec that Eric’s had since day one. But those two Marshalls are the workhorses.”
You were speaking with American Musical Supply about your upcoming PRS signature guitar. Can we take a guess and say it’s going to be a bolt-on?
“You’re wrong! Really, it’s pretty much the same thing as the last one… but it’s a different colour. I believe we might have done something different with the pickups. But it’s basically a different colour variation of the Myers Blue, of the last version of the Myers. It’s a cool colour, matching headstock.
“It’s very pretty. I’ve actually played a couple of prototypes onstage and just didn’t tell anyone what it was. People were asking. But we have redone the prototype since and the colour has changed a little bit.”
That’s very PRS, though. This constant refinement over time is what has made the brand what it is today.
“Paul Reed Smith is a genius, and I don’t call people that. But you’ve got to call people what they are in the spectrum of their field. He is the Leo Fender of today. He is the Orville Gibson of today. He really is.
“Those guitars are going to sell no matter what, and it’s like the fact that you have this huge corporation, and he’s still trying to only hire people who play guitar, or know about instruments, who still do so much by hand in a world where everything is CNC.
“Granted, they’ve got a lot of CNC machines, but they still do a ton of that by hand, and to have a guy at the helm of that, who goes around the world and wants to find – even if it is on the cheapest guitar they make – the best sounding plastic nut, like, ‘I’m going to drop these nuts on a table and I want to see which one sounds the best.’
The first time I ever met him, he talked to me about fly-fishing for two hours and never mentioned a guitar.
Zach Myers on Paul Reed Smith
“He’s the first person I’ve ever seen, when I went to go build a guitar, take a neck and hit it. And he would go, ‘Oh that’s a G.’ [hums tapping] To have a guitar maker who’s good in, good out… Anything in life, if you really think about it, good in, good out is the way to go.
“He’s just so focused on making something better. That’s why I’ve always said I won’t leave that company. Even if they say, ‘Okay, you don’t have a signature model anymore. We’re going in a different direction.’ I don’t know if I could play other guitars. I really don’t.”
![Shinedown - 45 (Official Video) [HD] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/MLeIyy2ipps/maxresdefault.jpg)
What other styles of guitar do you like?
“I’m obviously a big Gibson hollowbody guy. I love Gibsons. I love Teles. But I just don’t know if I could ever do it. I love [PRS] guitars so much, and to have someone at the helm who cares so much about making the instrument…”
Every time Paul Reed Smith speaks you learn something new about the instrument.
“Yeah, dude! He’s great. He’s as kooky as can be, too. I tell people all the time. The first time I ever met him, he talked to me about fly-fishing for two hours and never mentioned a guitar. And I was 15 and just wanted to talk about guitars all day long.”
Well, fly-fishing and guitars, there’s a parallel there, maybe with the patience and art of it...
“I think that was his point. But at 15, I was not trying to hear it! [Laughs] Dude, tell me why the guitar sounds so good!”
What did he say to you when you came out with that relic’d John Mayer Silver Sky?
“He didn’t say anything! He didn’t say anything. He notoriously doesn’t like relics. It’s well documented, his hatred of relics, which is fine. Hey, I would never relic a flame-top guitar – I just felt the Silver Sky lent itself to that kind of cool thing. But he didn’t say anything.
Hey, I would never relic a flame-top guitar – I just felt the Silver Sky lent itself to that kind of cool thing
“I’ve got to be careful what I say. I’ve got into so much trouble… Dude, I told Drew [Foppe, Myers’ guitar tech] one day, I was like, ‘I’m going to take this song in the middle of Monsters…’ – which is the song I play it on, and we have so much fire [onstage] – ‘…I’m just going to throw that thing in the fire and let it burn to death because I’ve had more drama around this guitar…”
It’s crazy. Drew even put a post up on Instagram to address the drama.
“The thing is, John was making a pink guitar. I did not know that, and I made that guitar pink. It was white. There are pictures of me playing it from 2018 to whenever I relic’d it. And it was just a white guitar. I painted it pink and I didn’t know John had a pink one coming out, so it looked like John had given me a pink guitar and I’d relic’d it. I don’t know who was mad. Some people were mad.”
It was funny. It looked cool.
“It’s still one of my coolest looking guitars.”
Undoubtedly. And if you start making solid-colour finishes, people are going to relic them. That’s the temptation. Speaking of other PRS models, you’re a fan of the NF3?
“Love the NF3! The NF3, I wish they would bring them back. I don’t think they make them anymore. I’m playing the NF53 on Dance, Kid Dance. It’s the first song of the night, so I’m playing that. We used the Tele on the record so I was like I need something that’s like that, and they were like, ‘What one do you want?’ I’m like, ‘I want that flat Hunters Green one.’ And, dude, it rips. It is such a great guitar, a killer guitar.”
- Shinedown are on tour in the US. See Shinedown's official website for dates and ticket details.
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