The Rock and Roll Express Tour is going full steam ahead. 3 Doors Down, Collective Soul and Soul Asylum have been touring this summer and if they haven’t been to your town yet, you’re going to want to grab some tickets to this show.
3 Doors Down has played countless shows and has sold over 20 million albums worldwide. They have millions of fans, started their own charity (The Better Life Foundation) and all the while loving what they do. They’ve also had a few lineup changes but Chris Henderson has there since the first record, The Better Life.
I had the chance to catch up with Chris Henderson in this interview to talk about the current tour, new music and some of his favorite equipment.
When I asked him about the tour and how it’s going, he sounded as excited as ever. “It’s going great, man! The tour is going really well, everybody’s getting along and the shows are better than ever.” After hearing his excitement I wondered if this ever gets old? Chris says, “I mean, you can’t let something like this get old. It’s like.. I can think of worse jobs to have and I’ve had a couple of them. (laughs) But this is great and to be able to tour like we’re touring, 25 years after we started, is such a blessing, man. Truly a blessing, you know what I mean? I don’t want to take it for granted ever again. I have in the past and I’ll never do that again.”
Sort of refreshing to hear someone who is in a band that is as successful as 3DD and is still playing to huge crowds, to admit something like that. Since we were talking about touring, I asked him if there were any cities he really enjoyed going to while on tour?
Chris thinks for a moment and says, “I’m a big fan of New Orleans. We’re not going there on this tour but I’m a big fan and of being there in that area. I’m a Saints fan, an LSU fan so when I get down in that area it feels like home, even though it’s not my home.”
After talking about the tour we discussed the bands last album, Us and the Night. I remember the first time I listened to it. I felt like the band really did something different and a little experimental for them. I remembered reading something where Chris was saying that ‘sometimes you can get locked into a little box and you try to not re-write the same record over and over again.’ So now that two years have passed since that album came out, I asked him if he felt like they succeeded in getting out of that box.
“Yeah I think so. With a couple of songs on the record we really kind of stretched our legs a bit . We did electronic stuff and different chord changes and stuff like that, that we never really worked with before. Everything had kind of been in A minor and this sort of 3 chord thing we became know for. But then when you start delivering music to different people, they say ‘we don’t like that, that doesn’t sound like you’. Or you give it to them and they say ‘that sounds just like you’. (laughs) So it’s really hard to satisfy everyone so at some point you go ‘okay.. let’s just do what we do and not worry about it anymore.’ So on this last record we experimented with different instrumentation and different ways of recording. So the record we’re doing now, we’re just gonna kind of do it and see what happens and not really worry too much about it.
Intrigued, I asked him how far along in the process the band was into the new material. He says they are really just starting the process and with the tour coming up they sort of put the new songs on hold. Chris makes a point to say, “If you write songs on the road, they tend to be about the road, and not everyone can relate to that. So we try not to do that. We want to go home and write about real stuff because the people that are listening to it are going to be listening to it from a real place.
I told him that from an audience point of view, their live show is so powerful. I’ve heard from people that the first time they saw the band live, they were surprised how electric the concert was. I asked if there was any possibility of ever putting out a Kiss Alive type record and release an album that captured that live power.
Chris says, “We did a live record a long time ago, but that was an E.P. You know, I think would be kind of cool. It would be a nice catalog piece and our fans would really like that. It’s something we’ve talked about in the past and it may be something that comes up. Because we are definitely a heavier band live than we are on record.”
I think he’s 100% correct. The fans would love an album like that.
Speaking of that heavy live show. I’m a big guitar tone type person and wanted to talk about some of the equipment Chris uses on stage and if there are any special or personal pieces he has in his collection.
You can hear the excitement in Chris’s voice as he tells me about this 5150 he ran across. “I’ve got this 5150! It’s not a Peavy one, it’s the Fender one. One of the newer Eddie Van Halen 5150 ones. I had it in my studio and it kind of just sat there and sat there. And I was like you know what? I’m gonna break this bad boy out. So I plugged it in and started rock and rolling with it and really liked this amp. So I decided, that instead of taking it on the road and lugging this big head around, that I would just profile it with a Kemper (Profiling Amp). So I get the Kemper out and I was able to profile it along with my (Marshall) JCM 800. I’ve got like 50 or 60 amps. So I profiled all of them. I took them out and started recording them with the sound guy and just sort of let him decide what he wanted. And we both agreed on that 5150. So that’s what you’re hearing is that 5150 that came from my studio. Every night live I use that Kemper and I use my signature PRS guitars. Also, I have some really nice Les Pauls and that’s my tone. I don’t use any effects. I don’t process it at all. It’s just the amp and the guitar every night.”
I was pretty blown away by that. I would say 99% of the guitarists I speak to use some sort of effects on stage. I would say his tone is pretty darn true. While we were both pretty fired up over guitar tone I told him about this 72 Marshall JMP that I have and how I would never get rid of that thing. I asked if he had something like that in his collection that is one of those “I would be crushed if it ever got stolen” or just use in the studio type amp.
He then starts to tell me about that JCM 800. And then.. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth.
Chris starts in about his JCM 800. “If you listen to any of our records from the first one all the way to the last one.. You’re listening to that amp, pretty much. Even the last Megadeth record, that was that JCM 800. I’m good friends with Dave and I let him borrow it and he used it for everything. That record won a Grammy. I mean, not because of the guitar tone, obviously (laughs) but because of the songs. But he loved it and I said ‘if you want to use it, use it.’ And he did.”
Pretty Bitchin’.
I then asked him to list 3 or 4 albums, desert island style. I was curious to see what albums moved him after talking so in depth about guitar tone and amplifiers.
“Rush – Chronicles. Appetite For Destruction (Guns N’ Roses). Master Of Puppets (Metallica). And anything by Exodus.”
Not a bad list at all.
Finally, I wanted to know if he had any message he wanted to say to the fans that are excited for them to come to their town.
“Oh yeah, I’m really excited to bring this tour and let people see it and how far we’ve come. To see where we’re at in our career and I hope everyone enjoys it and has as much fun as we do. We are looking forward to seeing everybody.”
“Can’t wait to you, man. It’s gonna be good stuff!”
Excited to hear what comes next from the band. In the meantime hop on board and get ready for a killer live show.
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-Tommy Marz
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