Shinedown guitarist Zach Myers recently told The Jasta Show about opening for Iron Maiden in Europe four years ago.
“The first night I walked onstage, I was, like, ‘This feels like your first show ever, because no one gave a fuck who we were. Nobody. And I mean nobody.
“Bruce [Dickinson] came up to us and was, like, ‘Man, I’ve never seen a band go out there with your fucking balls over your shoulder like that.’ ‘Cause we didn’t change our set. We have some heavy songs, but we ‘re not a fucking metal band. We’re a pop-rock band. We’re an Active Rock band. But we didn’t change our set. We didn’t go out there and play ‘Devour’ and ‘Sound Of Madness’ and just do heavy shit; we kind of did the dynamics of what we do. And by the end of the show, man, everyone had their fists in the air. And you know Iron Maiden crowds, man. We’ve done two weeks with METALLICA in Europe, we’ve toured with KISS, we’ve done all these things, and there ain’t no fans like Maiden fans — nobody.”
He continued: “We always say, ‘Be your own pyro.’ In those moments, you can’t bring any production with Maiden. You’re just out there, dude. So you start a song like ‘Second Chance’, which was a No. 1 Top 40 song, and there’s 20,000 people and no one claps. [Laughs] You play that at your show, and the roof comes off the place. You play with Iron Maiden, and they’re, like, ‘Hey, motherfucker, when is Iron Maiden going on?'”
