The lineup has been nailed down for the third annual 3 Doors Down & Friends benefit, set for Dec. 2 at the Mobile (Ala.) Convention Center. Supporting 3DD on the bill will be Staind, Hinder and Michael Tolcher. Proceeds from the concert, sponsored by AIGAmerican General Life & Accident, will benefit Hurridane Katrina victims along the Gulf Coast.
“In the past we’ve done a little bit of country, a little rock, a little whatever, and this year’s it’s just a straight-up rock show,” 3DD lead vocalist Brad Arnold tells Billboard.com. “I think a lot of the people, some of the corporations and stuff that buy all the tables before they even know who will play, they’re gonna have a good time that night.”
Arnold says the Better Life Foundation (BLF) was originally created to benefit Biloxi area children’s charities, but the unforeseen — and devastating — impact of Hurricane Katrina has changed the focus over the past two years. Arnold says the foundation has raised about $900,000 since it started.
“With the Foundation, it’s a dollar in and a dollar out, minus what it costs for us to actually put on the benefit every year,” he says. “Nobody’s on the payroll, everybody does it in their spare time, and we look for charities to benefit that have that same kind of outlook on it. We don’t want to give to somebody where 60% of it goes to administration fees.”
Meanwhile, an intended 3DD writing session last Thursday turned into an impromptu jam session at guitarist Matt Roberts’ Biloxi-area home. “I used to play the drums and I don’t get to play too much anymore, so I brought a set of drums over here to Matt’s house last night and we set up in his living room,” says Arnold. “I bet his neighbors are loving us about right now. We started jamming last night, not really writing yet, but just getting those juices back flowing. Man I tell you what, it felt good to sit down and jam a little bit. “
Arnold says that within the next month or two the band will begin writing the follow-up record to 2005’s “17 Days,” and recording could start late this year or early in 2007. “Hopefully by March or April we’ll have a new record out,” Arnold says. “But this time I don’t want to put a new record out until you hear it and go, ‘Holy sh*t!’ We’re not going to rush it or try to make one in 17 days again. We’re just gonna have fun with it.”
Arnold believes the band will take a different approach to recording the next project. “Instead of just going in and trying to write a record, we’re going to go in and jam and have some fun and let the record happen,” he says. “The first record we wrote in four years, the second record we wrote in four months, the third one we wrote in four weeks. I don’t want to do that anymore.”
