3 Doors Down singer keeping busy with band’s livestreams

3 Doors Down singer keeping busy with band’s livestreams, work on horse farm

Watch list: Andrews Osborne 11-5, Chardon 8-7, Cornerstone Christian 11-9, Fairport 14-7, Gilmour 7-9 Crop comments: Mentor — the state’s No. 1-ranked team in the Associated Press Division I state poll — is chasing an undefeated regular season but needs to beat Youngstown Chaney Feb. 19 and then St. Ignatius the next night. Both games are at Mentor. ... Brush beat South on Feb. 17 to win its fifth straight Western Reserve Conference title. Junior Elmore James leads the area in scoring with more than 30 points per game. Against the Rebels, he scored 36 in three quarters . ... Division IV Richmond Heights appears postseason-ready after a win at Division I Medina. Another tough game is on the docket Feb. 19 at D-I Walsh Jesuit . ... Perry beat Lakeside, 70-43, to clinch the Chagrin Valley Conference Lake title . ... Chagrin Falls has won five of six and plays crosstown rival Kenston Feb. 19 . ... Mayfield enters the Crop for the first time after a nice turnaround. Coach Will Brand’s team began 2-9, but closed the regular season 9-2.

During the turn-of-thecentury din that found numetal raging, there was a calming post-grunge band that emerged with one hook-ready anthem after another.

That was 3 Doors Down, which watched its debut, “The Better Life,” become one of the new millennium’s first big rock albums.

Buoyed by No. 1 hits “Kryptonite,” “Loser” and “Duck and Run,” the seventimes-platinum album dominated radio for the next decade and forever changed the lives of the Mississippi band members.

“If you told me we would have had the success we had, I would have wanted to believe you, but it would have been hard,” said 3 Doors Down singer-songwriter Brad Arnold, calling from a horse farm located outside of Nashville. “We’ve been so blessed.

“Just looking back, it didn’t seem like it could be that long. Yesterday was actually the day (Feb. 8, 2000) ‘A Better Life’ got released. It’s like, dang, that’s surreal. And it still has a life. To be able to rerelease it, it’s just really cool.”

Next month, 3 Doors Down is celebrating the album’s anniversary with a box set release that includes the remastered studio album and obligatory bonus tracks, as well as the ninesong 1996 demo that got the band signed.

“In some ways, going back it was, like, ‘ooh,’ but at the same time we were so critical of it back then,” Arnold said. “Now being so far away from it for so long, you listen to it and it’s like, man, that’s not so bad. I see how people got it.”

What 3 Doors Down fans are getting now is a whole bunch of music. The Grammy Award-nominated group is in the middle of performing three livestream concerts for fans.

In addition to playing “The Better Life” in its entirety earlier this month, the “3 X LIVE” virtual series finds the band offering a greatest-hits acoustic set on Feb. 19 and greatesthits electric set on March 5.

“The livestream is cool because it gives us a chance to play,” Arnold said. “It was fun to do it because our last show as a band was September 2019.”

Considering it’s been half a decade since 3 Doors Down released a new studio effort, 2016’s “Us and the Night,” perhaps it’s time the band recorded some new tunes?

“Man, I know,” Arnold said. “During this pandemic and living on this farm, I get out to work outside all day. Honestly, that’s where I write, because I can’t write songs in the studio. If I do, it sucks. When I’m outside, occasionally one will fall out of the sky and hit me in the face.

“So I keep my phone in my pocket. You used to keep a notebook but now I use the voice memo. It works better because you get the melody and lyric in there. I have hundreds of them, so I’d really like to write a record pretty soon.”

The group’s loyal following no doubt wishes the next time they hear about 3 Doors Down the band is announcing a new tour to support a new album.

“Oh, I hope so,” Arnold said. “I can’t wait to go out and play some shows. And Cleveland will absolutely be on the list.”

3 DOORS DOWN

What: “Greatest Hits Acoustic” livestream.

When: 9 p.m. Feb. 19.

Tickets: $20.

Info: 3doorsdown.com.

SUBMITTED 3Doors Down’s most recent studio album is 2016’s “Us and the Night.”