TAKE FIVE: 3 doors down By Jerry Fink

saxo-archive

Friday, Dec. 28, 2007 | midnight

IF YOU GO

Who: 3 Doors Down

When: 9 p.m. Monday

Where: The Joint at the Hard Rock

Tickets: $89.50 to $199.50; 693-5000

ON CD

“The Better Life” (2000)

“Away From the Sun” (2002)

“Another 700 Miles” (2003)

“Seventeen Days” (2005)

“Kryptonite” put Escatawpa, Miss., on the map.

Escatawpa, about 30 miles west of Biloxi, is the birthplace of the rock band 3 Doors Down, formed in 1994 by bassist Todd Harrell, vocalist Brad Arnold and guitarist Matt Roberts. The band later added Chris Henderson on guitar and Greg Upchurch on drums.

“‘Kryptonite' got our foot in the door, but we had seven No. 1 hits after that,” Harrell said from Nashville, Tenn., where he sometimes stays when he isn't at home in Biloxi or touring. “It's hard to say which is your biggest hit. I think the song ‘Loser' stayed on the charts longer, but ‘Kryptonite' was No. 1 for 20-something weeks.”

The group has sold more than 12 million albums and recently finished work on its fifth album. The video for its song “Citizen/Soldier” is being used as a recruiting tool by the National Guard on its Web site and in movie theaters.

When the group isn't recording or touring, 3 Doors Down likes to help folks in and around Biloxi, where it is based. The band recently held its fourth annual Better Life Foundation concert at the Hard Rock in Biloxi, raising more than $200,000 to benefit children's charities and other organizations in the area.

The group will perform at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas on New Year's Eve.

Where the name came from

We were driving around one day and seen an old boarded up building and it said “doors down” -- it was an old condemned building. At that time it was just me and Brad (Arnold) and Matt (Roberts) in the band -- three of us. We just said hey, “3” would look cool in front of that “doors down” sign. We had a gig that night and we didn't have a name for the band so we had to think of one real quick. We came up with 3 Doors Down, so that just kind of stuck. It's a catchy little name.

About the new album

We're calling it “3 Doors Down.” It'll be released after the first of the year, maybe around Valentine's Day or Easter. It's a little heavier than our other records. We do a ballad or two, but the rest of it's a little heavier than our usual stuff. All in all, it's a good record. We're really proud of it. The new songs are just great.

A home recording

We did it a little different. Instead of going to a studio we rented us a house here in Nashville and gutted the whole bottom floor and turned it into a studio for 3 1/2 months and then we went to Florida for a little different scenery and we did the same thing there. We recorded in the house there for four months. So we ended up making the whole record in a house. We've did the others in studios, but with all the technology today it can be done like that. This record, we put a lot of writing into it and I think it's our best work yet. It's a really good record. It turned out better than any of us expected it to. We were all cooped up in there together for 8 1/2 months. We had a good time. Nah, we didn't kill each other. We get along great.

The Better Life Foundation

It's just a way we can give back to our community. We come from a small town. It's really been good to us, supported us. They take good care of us. The foundation is a way for us to give something back. We use it to raise money and we give the money to homeless shelters, battered women, schoolbooks for kids. Things like that. We try to help out in those kinds of ways. People back home have been so great to us, it's our way of saying thanks.

Vegas for New Year's

We've played Vegas quite a few times. We've got some great fans there and they treat us good. That's why we like playing there. We've never been there on New Year's so we're looking forward to it. It's going to be awesome. We're going to play five or six songs off the new album along with all the hits. It's going to be a rock 'n' roll show. We just want to invite everyone to come and have a good time.