Shinedown is back with another hit, “A Symptom of Being Human.” Frontman Brent Smith says the song has an overarching theme, but he was also partly inspired by the fact that during the pandemic, live shows were canceled and the band’s road crew found themselves suddenly unemployed.
“The song is about essentially being human and that there are all kinds of symptoms to be human,” he told ABC Audio. “We live in a world that everybody is under a microscope and everything from anywhere at any time is always on display.”
“But there was a real heartfelt message inside of this song … because I was just thinking about what my guys and girls were having to go through, with the unknown of, ‘When do I get to go back to work?"”
Whatever the inspiration, Brent says fans are really connecting with the song. It’s from their 2022 album, Planet Zero, and he says as soon as the record was released, “just the amount of people that gravitated specifically to that song was pretty extraordinary.”
“What I’ve gotten from people is that the song is almost like a reset button for them,” he adds. “Like, when they’re having an anxiety attack, they’ll listen to it.”
Brent says he can relate.
“I know that it can be nerve-racking to ask for help. I know that it can be nerve-racking to sometimes just ask everybody to stop for a minute and let you talk because you’re having a tough time,” he notes.
“But at the end of the day, you got to remember something, too … we’re all a work in progress.”
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