3 Doors Down's Matt Roberts

3 Doors Down is here to stay. Their debut album, The Better Life, dropped in 2000 and was a Top 10 album on the Billboard Top 200 for 13 weeks. You would have had to be underground to not have heard their first single "Kryptonite". The song was not only catchy but it caught on like wildfire. "Loser", "Duck and Run" and "Be Like That", all of which gained popularity in the rock market, followed the massive success of "Kryptonite". To cap their stunning year, the band received a Grammy Nomination for Best Rock Song for "Kryptonite". Who knew that they were just getting started?

3 Doors Down is comprised of Brad Arnold on vocals, Matt Roberts on guitar, Todd Harrell on bass, Chris Henderson on guitar and Daniel Adair on drums. The band first came together back in 1996 in Escatawpa, Mississippi. After one of his bands had broken up, Todd got together with Brad and Chris and began making music again. Brad began to write some music and the trio began playing gigs at friends' parties. Eventually, they began to travel with their small set repertoire and it was in Foley, Alabama that the three guys came up with the band's name. After coming out of a building, the three guys noticed a sign with some of the letters missing. The sign said "Doors Down". Given that there were three of them at the time, they decided that they would be called "3 Doors Down". Chris, who had played with Todd in bands in the past, joined the trio two years later and then they added a fifth member who would play the drums so that Brad could focus on singing. The rest as they say is history. Daniel is the newest member of 3 Doors Down and has added additional depth to the already tight group.

With all of the chaos that came with the amazing success of their first album, the boys managed to keep a good balance in life and took a break after "The Better Life" before returning to the recording studio. Now they are back with a vengeance with their second album "Away From the Sun". The first single "When I'm Gone" has already hit number 1 on "Rick Dees Top 40" and is currently sitting in the number 9 spot on the "Billboard Hot 100". 3 Doors Down is very excited about this new album and guitarist Chris Henderson has gone so far as to describe the band's sophomore album as their "masterpiece".

Currently, 3 Doors Down is on a hectic road tour covering 15 states in just one short month. After a harrying ten minutes trying to get the phone system to work, we spoke with guitarist Matt Roberts on the phone from his hotel room about the new album, the tour and life in general. Matt comes on the phone with his southern drawl and settles in to chat. He is a down to earth guy with thoughtful responses and the kind of guy who makes you feel like you have all of his attention.

TeenMusic.com: How is the tour going?

Matt: The tour is going great; we' re having a good time.

TeenMusic.com: After the tour are you going to be able to take some time off to get back to your water sports and relax?

Matt: Yeah, well you know what's happened here just recently...is we planned on a tour going (of course we've got a summer tour planned) but on the break of the spring and the summer, we planned on going back and doing another Europe tour but we cancelled that as of a couple of days ago so that's going to give us some time off there to do whatever we want to do so that's great. It's going to be like 3 weeks off so it's going to be kind of unbelievable for us.

TeenMusic.com: I have heard that Chris has described "Away from the Sun" as the band's masterpiece. How do you feel about the album?

Matt: You know, I don't know if I could go and say that. It's definitely a record that we're very proud of and you know I like to think that the best is yet to come from this band. That's just the way I feel about it. But yes, I definitely think that it is a complete work from us. You know, whether it's a masterpiece or not, you know I think that the people decide that but I do think that it is a complete piece of work from us.

TeenMusic.com: Was there ever another career that you contemplated for yourself or have you always wanted to be a professional musician?

Matt: Well I always wanted to do what it is that I am doing but you know there was a time in my life where I wanted to be a doctor, or a computer programmer so those were kind of my contingencies on the way to the top.

TeenMusic.com: Okay so what do you think you would be doing if you weren't with 3 Doors Down? Would you be playing with another band? Playing on your own? Or would you be a doctor?

Matt: Well you know I would probably be in medical school. Probably. You know my plan was to...well I already had a degree in Computer Programming and I was going to work for a couple of years and put myself through med school. So I would probably have put in my first or second year by now but would still be a long long way away [from graduating] but that is probably where I would be.

TeenMusic.com: What do you think your biggest challenge is being a member of a professional rock group?

Matt: You know the biggest challenge I guess is adaptation. Adaptation you know as far as you know finding a balance in between [work and home] because you know we don't live a normal life like everybody else does so it's kind of hard to find that balance in between when you go home and getting a level of domestication and [then] being on the road...it's kind of like living with dual personalities. I guess that's the toughest thing to really deal with is you go home, you're home and when you are out here, you are consumed and you don't want to get consumed and absorbed when you are at home. That is the hardest part for me.

TeenMusic.com: How do you try and manage that balance?

Matt: Usually I am a little reclusive when I am at home. I don't know if it comes from less interaction with people at home or what but when I get home I really like to get away from it all. As a band, we usually don't see each other if we have a few days off so I usually try to just keep everything out of my head and just stay away from it all when I am at home. That is what I try to do.

TeenMusic.com: What was it like performing for the US troops [in Iraq]? How did you feel about that?

Matt: That was a great experience. It was something that of course not a lot of people get the chance to do. It really was amazing because we are just a rock band and it actually felt kind of medicinal to be there helping the troops out in the middle of the desert because it was pretty extreme to see how those guys, as kids, we out there living. So it was a really good feeling

TeenMusic.com: What is your favourite memory about filming the "When I'm Gone" video?

Matt: (Laughing) Well geeze, which one? We've done three now!

TeenMusic.com: (Laughing)The one that the military is currently using.

Matt: That was amazing. But you know the thing about that was we didn't shoot that as a video. I mean, what had happened was that we [the band] had hired a cameraman to come over a document all of our events over there and after it all happened, we came back and we shot the concept video (well we had actually shot it before we left) and we were looking at the footage from our trip and we thought that this [the footage] would make a better video. So, we synched everything up and it just turned out to be a really cool thing and a really 'real' thing.

TeenMusic.com: Who would you say has been your greatest musical inspiration?

Matt: Probably my mother. Basically because from the time I was a toddler, she's a pianist, and that's where I got my first atmosphere of music is from her for sure.

TeenMusic.com: If you had the opportunity to play with any guitarist alive or dead, who would you play with and why?

Matt: Do you know what I would like to do? I would like to play with Johnny Cash before he dies. Just because I love the Cash. He's a man and he's getting old and I would like to have a performance with him before he dies. That would be a pinnacle moment for me.

On that note, I let Matt carry on his way. Be sure and check out the official website 3 Doors Down for all of your up to date concert information, watch the video for "When I'm Gone" shot with footage from their time aboard the USS George Washington when the group toured in support of US troops.