Shinedown Shines Light on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention

Rock band Shinedown is used to turning out chart-topping hits and packing arenas, and now the guys are using their platform and their music to help save lives.

Lyrics to their songs like “Bully” mirror their real-life struggles, and lead singer Brent Smith tells “Extra’s” Rachel Lindsay, “Talking about your feelings is not something you should be ashamed of or embarrassed by.”

He’s not embarrassed to candidly talk about winning his own battle with substance abuse, saying, “You don’t need to feel like a substance creates who you are.”

Now, Smith, 45, and the band want to help others and they are focused on suicide prevention.

Brent shared, “Suicide became something that entered my life at an early age when I was a teenager, when friends of mine were committing suicide… I feel nobody was listening and they were probably feeling as if nobody would understand them and they felt like that was the only way they could express how they truly felt.”

The band is donating a dollar from every ticket of their tour, which runs April 3-May 9, to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Brett Wean, the foundation director of writing and entertainment outreach, lost his own mother to suicide. He said working with the band is a perfect fit.

He said, “There is nothing like artists like Shinedown writing music and creating lyrics that get into feelings and that lets people listening recognize that feeling within themselves and that lets them know they're not alone and also fosters connection, connection is just a really healthy thing and it also happens to be a protective factor to suicide.”

One of those songs is “A Symptom of Being Human,” which Smith says “is saying to the listener… you’re not alone.”

He added, “You can look around at everyone else in the world and think you're being judged by them when it couldn't be further from the truth.”