Shinedown‘s debut album, Leave a Whisper, turns 20 this Saturday.
Released May 27, 2003, Leave a Whisper put Shinedown on the map with the singles “45” and “Fly from the Inside” — as well as a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s “Simple Man” included on the deluxe version — and has been certified Platinum by the RIAA.
“Man, that’s crazy,” frontman Brent Smith tells ABC Audio of the 20th anniversary. “It literally feels like it was yesterday. It really does.”
Smith shares that he and his bandmates are working on a way to celebrate the Leave a Whisper milestone, and he has a particular dream gig in mind that he’s “throw[ing] out into the atmosphere.”
“It’d be awesome to play it in full at Madison Square Garden,” Smith says. “We’ve never played Madison Square Garden, it would be awesome to do that.”
Whether or not Shinedown ends up headlining the famed New York City arena, Smith says the group is planning to play a Leave a Whisper anniversary show somewhere this year.
“We’re gonna try and do one show this year, I don’t know where it’ll be — who knows, it might be Madison Square Garden — where we’re gonna play Leave a Whisper front to back,” Smith says. “Then obviously we’ll go off for a minute, come back, and then we’ll play another 10 songs. But we’re working on … one Leave a Whisper show, to play it in its entirety, which has never been done before.”
In the meantime, Shinedown will resume touring in support of their latest record, 2022’s Planet Zero, in July.
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