3 Doors Down On Stories Behind Their Famous Hits & Their Beginning Years

Talking about the beginning of their career, Brad shares how things got started. He was the youngest of 7 kids and sang in church, however never really stood out in his singing. His whole family was very loud and out there so he would just sing around the house often, something that was "never out of place" at his house. Brad loved 80s bands and 90s country so he and a few friends would drive around the neighborhood in a truck his dad gave him and belt out all the good songs. When there were just 3 of them jamming with music together, they didn't have a lead singer. He decided to try out being the lead singer and all of his friends in and out of the band were really encouraging to him. Because of that, he embraced the lead vocal role. Despite a lot of fan theories, their name 3 Doors Down doesn't mean anything significant. The name was melted together from three random words as a consequence of hanging out together one night. They have heard the many crazy fan theories around their name, but reiterated that none of them are true. In the beginning, people even tried to "flash up" their look, but they all realized quickly their voices didn't match those kind of outfits. Their team even sent them to media class to learn how to interview and not talk quite as "country," but none of the group really paid attention.

The group has been around and thriving with their music for years and they credit that success and motivation to continue on to their fans. Brad said, "Our fans have been so good to us. We've been through a lot over the years. It's just the fans, you hear how much your music means top people." They added that getting encouraging notes from fans or people on the street always kept them moving forward. The group has several popular hits and shared some stories behind their songs. "Kryptonite" is the song they always start their shows with and it was their first hit. That song came about because of a local radio station in their area. The station was spinning the song like crazy and allowed it to become a hit locally and spiral from there. Their song "When I'm Gone" is the only song they wrote while they were on tour. Their song "Loser" brought some fear for the band, because it was the follow up song to "Kryptonite" and they didn't want to become a one-hit-wonder. They were really thankful "Loser" did so well at rock radio, being number 1 for months, because it ensured further success in the format. Their hit "Be Like That," featured on American Pie 2's soundtrack was written in about 2 minutes, it was one of their quicker ideas put to pen and paper. Band member Chris wrote almost all of the songs for the band, and he admitted that they're definitely still making money off of the music they did years ago.

3 Doors Down group members collectively felt blessed that they were able to have so many songs that connected with fans. They admitted it's still weird to be in the grocery store and hear one of their songs playing over head. They credit some of their touring success to Creed, who was the first ever band to take them out on tour and it was the only band 3 Doors Down ever opened up for. Playing with groups like Aerosmith, and ZZ Top, the group said they've gotten some inspiration from that those moments on the road. They were inspired by Aerosmith to do their full album Better Life from start to finish for a tour after watching Aerosmith do that with one of their albums. The Better Life 20th Anniversary Tour has several cities with tickets available now.

Watch 3 Doors Down Perform "Kryptonite," "Loser" "When I'm Gone" and "Be Like That."