Shinedown side project Smith & Myers tackles “right and wrong” with debut original single, “Not Mad Enough”

Credit: Paris VisoneShinedown frontman Brent Smith and guitarist Zach Myers have released a new song called “Not Mad Enough,” their first original track with their Smith & Myers side project. The song was written following the death of George Floyd, who died while in custody of Minneapolis police in May.

“I remember watching [the news coverage], partly in disbelief, and partly just heartbroken because of where we had arrived,” Smith tells ABC Audio. “I really could not believe that…I kept saying it to myself, too, I was just, like, ‘This cannot be real. It’s a movie.’ But it wasn’t a movie.”

Smith explains that the lyrics that would eventually make up “Not Mad Enough” came to him “immediately” thereafter. “The song wrote itself, in a lot of ways,” he says, though he wishes that it “hadn’t had to be written.”

“I wish the man was still alive,” Smith says.

Overall, Smith describes “Not Mad Enough” as a song about “right and wrong.”

“We’re choosing to be on the side of what’s right,” Smith says.

“The song is also about, let’s put it into action,” he adds. “Let’s figure it out together, and then let’s create the world that we actually want to live in.”

“Not Mad Enough” will appear on the debut Smith & Myers full-length album, Volume 1, due out October 9. The record includes four other original songs, plus five covers.

By Josh Johnson
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