SHINEDOWN guitarist Zach Myers has opened up about the deeply personal reason behind the band’s decision to stop doing pre-show meet-and-greets — and it has nothing to do with time, logistics, or lack of appreciation for fans.
Speaking during a recent appearance on the Beardo & Weirdo podcast, co-hosted by Chris Kael and Craig Gass, Myers reflected on the emotional impact of fan interactions and how those moments began to take a serious toll on him.
When asked whether it still feels surreal that SHINEDOWN’s music connects with fans in the same way his own idols once did, Myers admitted that the experience is often overwhelming — especially when fans share deeply personal stories.
“Yes. But it also at times doesn’t feel real, because it’s true,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “Your music does mean as much to you as Bruce Springsteen meant to me or U2 meant to me or Steve Ray Vaughan or whatever. But when it’s you, it’s hard to… I get a lot of imposter syndrome, so it’s hard to go, ‘Oh.’ Like when people say, ‘Dude, your song saved my life,’ the computer just stops working for me. And I go, ‘Oh, man.’ And I don’t want it to make it look like it goes in one ear and out the other, ’cause the truth is people saying those types of things to me are the reason we stop doing meet-and-greets. Because I’ve got kids, and I would go to a meet-and-greet…”
Myers went on to explain that SHINEDOWN’s meet-and-greets were far more personal and time-intensive than the typical quick photo-line format — something that ultimately contributed to their decision to end them back in 2019.
“We would do [our meet-and-greets] very different. Some people just do a photo line. It’s, like, quick — in, out. We’ve toured with bands — they do 150 people in 30 minutes. It took us 90 minutes to do 40 people,” Zach explained. “‘Cause me and Brent [Smith] would start at one end, Eric [Bass] and Barry [Kerch] at the other, and we would just chat for five minutes with each person. And you’d get these people, and they would go, ‘Man, I’ve got a seven-year-old boy. He died of cancer.’ And I’m, like, under my shirt, texting my wife, like, ‘Take our kid to the hospital right now.’ She’s, like, ‘What? He’s on the trampoline.’ I’m, like, ‘He might have cancer.’ And God bless those people, and I want our songs to help them.
“I am man enough to admit I don’t have the emotional barricade to not walk on stage with that,” he continued. “By the end of it — I think [it was] 2019 when we stopped doing meet-and-greets — I walked out of 11, just walked out. Because I was literally, like, I would start to tear up. And you go to the guy next to you, and he’s, like, ‘Dude, [I’ve] seen you guys 25 times, bro. Stoked to be here.’ And you’re, like, ‘Sorry, man. I can’t turn this off. I’m gonna think about this kid for a year.’ And you feel for the families. But now what it’s done for us, I think not doing them, is when you meet people out on the street, it becomes more real. It’s not this formulative thing, the construct of a meet-and-greet. It’s, like, they get to see the real you.”
Meanwhile, SHINEDOWN are preparing to usher in their next chapter. The band’s eighth studio album, Ei8ht, is scheduled for release on May 29 via Atlantic Records, marking their first full-length effort since 2022’s Planet Zero.
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.