New band members rejuvenate 3 Doors Down

About a year ago, 3 Doors Down singer Brad Arnold looked set to take a real left turn with his career. He had gotten busy meeting up with other songwriters to work on a country solo record, which he was talking about releasing sometime this year.

The album hasn’t surfaced, and instead Arnold has found himself back working with 3 Doors Down. The group has spent a big chunk of the year doing an acoustic tour billed as its “Songs From the Basement.” The group’s Saturday show at the Kansas State Fair, however, will be fully plugged in.

“To be honest, I was starting to do that (solo record) because I wasn’t really happy with where this band was,” Arnold explained in a late-July phone interview. “I was just getting frustrated and I just wanted to see what I could do. I never wanted to leave the band. I just wanted to go do something that was fun again.”

In the end, though, Arnold wasn’t satisfied with the songs for the solo album, and around the time he shelved that project, personnel changes in 3 Doors Down began to change the atmosphere in the band.

In 2012, lead guitarist Matt Roberts left the band, and last year, a second original member, bassist Todd Harrell, was let go.

In Harrell’s case, he was replaced after he was charged in April 2013 with vehicular homicide after an auto accident that killed the other driver, Paul Howard Shoulders Jr. Harrell had previously been charged with DUI in 2012 and had gone into rehab.

The new bassist is Justin Biltonen, and Chet Roberts has replaced Matt Roberts. Guitarist Chris Henderson and drummer Greg Upchurch remain with 3 Doors Down.

The personal chemistry in the band has improved considerably since Roberts and Biltonen came aboard.

“Everybody gets along,” Arnold said. “We all ride on one bus again instead of having to split up into several buses, and we all just cut up at night (on stage). Nobody ever fights and nobody ever even really argues. I’ll tell you what, that’s nice.”

Whatever issues developed between the original members of 3 Doors Down, they didn’t stop the group from having major success.

Formed in Escatawpa, Miss., in 1996, the band burst onto the national scene in 2000 with its debut album, “The Better Life.”

Featuring the hits “Kryptonite,” “Loser” and “Duck and Run,” the album sold more than three million copies.

The band’s run of success continued with the sophomore album, 2002’s “Away from the Sun,” whose U.S. sales reached three million copies, and 2005’s “Seventeen Days,” which was another platinum hit.

The two most recent albums, a 2008 self-titled effort, and 2011’s “Time of My Life,” have fallen short of platinum, but have still given 3 Doors Down a few more rock radio hits.

Before the current tour started, the band began writing songs for a new studio album – and in fact has debuted three new tunes on the current tour.

Arnold said he’s excited for the next album, which he hopes will be finished by year’s end. Chet Roberts and Biltonen got involved in the writing of the first three songs, and Arnold senses that the band is rejuvenated creatively.

“Everybody wanted, not in a fighting way, but in a good, positive way, everybody wanted to bring in a new idea and start work on it,” he said. “That was a good feeling. As you write for so many years as a group, sometimes frankly you just kind of run out of ideas. It’s really nice to have these new guys in there, because they brought in some new ideas and they’ve changed the sound of some of these songs – and in a good way. I couldn’t be more happy with it.”

Arnold felt 3 Doors Down had gotten away from trying to surprise fans – and themselves – as time had gone on.

“We used to say all the time, it’s like we want to write songs that will always leave us a left turn. We never wanted to pigeonhole our sound,” he said. “And there for a couple of years, we were starting to, honestly we started to pigeonhole our sound. And I think what we’re starting to do now is to take some of those left turns, and just, nothing is out of bounds.”

This story was originally published September 6, 2014 at 7:00 PM with the headline "New band members rejuvenate 3 Doors Down."