WJRR Rock Files

band members . . .
Brad Arnold – vocals
Matt Roberts – guitar
Todd Harrell – bass
Chris Henderson – guitar

discography . . .
The Better Life - Uptown/Universal 2000

about the band...
Hailing from the small town of Escatawpa, MS, near Biloxi, 3 Doors Down forged their way to a major-label contract with popular live shows and the reputation of a single song.  When radio station WCPR in Biloxi, MS, started getting phone calls for a song by a band from nearby Escatawpa, the staff figured it was hearing from the group’s friends and relatives. But then the number of phone calls exploded. "This went way beyond just girlfriends and family calling with requests. I have never experienced phones of this magnitude," WCPR operations manager Kenny Vest told the Biloxi Sun Herald.  Their hit, "Kryptonite," made them local hometown favorites, enabling them to draw relatively large crowds to their local live shows.  This in turn helped them extend their range beyond Mississippi and the deep south to internationally famous clubs like New York's CBGB's. Originally a trio consisting of vocalist and drummer Brad Arnold, guitarist Matt Roberts and bassist Todd Harrell, the band soon added guitarist Chris Henderson and retained a studio drummer so that Arnold could come forward and sing live. The CBGB's show brought them to the attention of Republic Records, a subsidiary of Universal, who issued the band's major label debut, The Better Life, in early 2000.

Produced by Paul Ebersold (Sister Hazel) and mixed by Toby Wright (Alice in Chains, Korn), The Better Life offers tight, finely constructed music that’s driven by an energy that is at the same time almost out of control and supremely focused.  The album positions them somewhere between radio-ready post-grunge and more aggressive alternative metal. 

"We like to rock," Arnold says, and that’s borne throughout The Better Life, which kicks off with "Kryptonite" and moves through the ringing ebb and flow of " Loser," "Life of My Own," "Duck and Run," and "Be Like That" as deftly as it does the crunchy fury of "By My Side," "Smack," "Not Enough" and "So I Need You." All of the songs feature the dynamic interplay of Roberts and Henderson’s guitars atop the muscular rhythmic bed provided by Arnold and Harrell.

Music has always been in the crosshairs for singer-drummer Brad Arnold, bassist Todd Harrell and guitarists Matt Roberts and Chris Henderson.  Longtime friends from Escatawpa, each of the musicians felt the call early—particularly Arnold, who as a child would "set up pots and pans when I was little, just beat on stuff, whatever I could find."

After one of his bands broke up about four years ago, Harrell hooked up with Arnold and Roberts. The resulting music clicked for all of them. Arnold soon found himself not only pounding the skins but doing the group’s singing as well. "I always used to sing to myself when we were playing, "he says. "I was always singing around the house. Then one day I got a microphone, and nobody else would do it, but I did and I enjoyed it." Arnold became the band’s lyricist as well, often coming up with material in his high school algebra class.

The trio played its first gig at a friend’s party, roaring through a repertoire of four songs. "We knew one by Bush, one by Metallica and a couple of originals, "Arnold says. We played ‘em over and over again." The repertoire grew in short order, however, and the group started playing out. One of these road trips—to Foley, Alabama – also netted them a name. We came out of this building, and some of the letters had fallen off the front and it said ‘Doors Down,’ "Arnold remembers. "At the time there were just three of us, so we said ‘3
Doors Down.’

"We’ve got good lyrics; everything tells a story," explains Harrell. But ultimately, the bassist and senior member of 3 Doors Down feels the sound is what says the most about the group. "It’s a rock ‘n’ roll band, straight up, " Harrell explains. "It’s not really alternative or metal or anything – it’s rock ’n’ roll."

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