News
3 Doors Down excited to play at Trop
Band to open Rays' Summer Concert Series Saturday
By Zach Schonbrun / MLB.com
05/27/09 6:34 PM ET
ST. PETERSBURG -- The songs go almost unnoticed to the regular sports fan, just background hum to fill the interim periods between innings or at-bats, and you'd think over the years it wouldn't draw much attention from Brad Arnold anymore either.After three multi-platinum albums, six No. 1 singles, and multiple Billboard Music Awards, Arnold and his band 3 Doors Down have their music almost omnipresent these days. Yet there's still something about hearing his songs innocently blaring through the loudspeakers of a ballpark that especially brings to reality the impressiveness of his band's decade-long run.
And on Saturday, fans will get to hear his music after the game, too, as 3 Doors Down will take their tunes live inside Tropicana Field for a performance to kick off the Tampa Bay Rays' Summer Concert Series, which will feature a different live performance after every Rays Saturday home game.
Other performances throughout the summer include Ludacris, Smash Mouth, Flo Rida, Daughtry and the Beach Boys. The concerts are free with the purchase of the night's game ticket.
To Arnold, there's something about hearing his music during a ballgame that somehow touches a different nerve.
"We played up at Yankee Stadium during the last All-Star Game, and they were playing some of our music during the interim parts of the game," Arnold said in a conference call on Wednesday. "And it's one of those things, when you're a young musician, you don't really think about one day you just casually hear your songs over the PA at Yankee Stadium. It creates a surreal moment."
Born and raised in southeastern Mississippi, Arnold said he was never a diehard baseball fan, but watched Atlanta Braves games with his father, a memory he enjoys looking back on.
"I don't get to follow it as much as I'd like to, but I do like baseball," Arnold said. "I don't really have a favorite [team]. But I like chances to go out and have some fun at the games, which is what we're going to go down there and do."
As for what fans should expect on Saturday, he kept his song selection pretty vague. Don't worry, though, he said, the band will certainly not forget to include the popular hit Kryptonite, the No. 1 single that vaulted the band into the mainstream in 2000.
"Oh yeah, oh yeah, we always play Kryptonite," Arnold said. "For a little while we got a little burned out of it, and we stuck it at the front of the show just to kind of get it out of the way, but we kind of let it hang back toward the end of the show now."
Zach Schonbrun is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
