3 DOORS DOWN

20 QUESTIONS WITH 3 DOORS DOWN
By Troy Schmidt

1. Your big song is Kryptonite and Kryptonite is Superman's weakness. What is your weakness?
Chris Henderson: Nintendo
Brad Arnold: That's our traditional weakness, Nintendo.
Hardrock.com: So, you guys have no weaknesses?
Rich Liles: Of course not, man.
Brad: Our weakness is having to get up too early.

2. What is one thing you can do faster than a speeding bullet?
All: Laughter
Rich: There's really nothing, probably.
Todd Harrell: This bunch, not much. Probably nothing. We can't do nothing that fast.
Rich: It took 20 minutes just to get us in here, and we're all in the same building, OK.

3. You are from Escatawpa, Mississippi. Is that Indian for something?
Chris: Dog
Todd: I don't know what it means.
Chris: It supposedly stands for dog.
Brad: Is it?
Chris: Its just like hearsay, I didn't get it out of the New World almanac or anything.
Hardrock.com: Any specific kind of dog or…
Chris: An Indian dog.

4. Can you think of anyone in your life that lived three doors down from you?
Chris: Ain't ever had no neighbors.
Brad: I have a pretty good buddy who lives three doors down from me,
Hardrock.com: What was his name?
Brad: Justin. That's about the only person I can think of that I can even associate with three doors down.
Todd: I had a cousin that lived three doors down.
Chris: Scott the pot man lived three doors down.
Todd Chris: Scott the pot man.
Hardrock.com: Are those cooking pots?
All: yeah, yeah.
Matt Roberts: Tupperware.

5. If this were the show "Survivor", which one of you would survive the longest?
Rich: Probably me.
Brad: Hey you know what, I think somebody from Mississippi would, or you know what, I know that any one of us would fare pretty well on that thing because I know all of us have done things to that effect. It would be a lot less shocking for us than it would be for some people because a lot of people have grown up in a city or something and they've never even seen anything even vaguely close to that. I mean, ain't none of us crocodile Dundee or anything, but we could probably do some of that stuff.

6. When you were on The Tonight Show for the first time, who were the other guests?
Chris: Judge Judy and Tom Green
Rich: Judge Judy.
Brad: She was cool. She had our CD.
Hardrock.com: Was Tom Green hanging out with mice or something?
Brad: He came out and he was all quiet.
Rich: He's real quiet on stage.
Brad: But it's hard to take him seriously when he's dressed up like a tree, he was dressed up like a tree at the time. Funky
Hardrock.com: Your going on again, right?
All: Yeah, the 27th.

7: The pessimistic lyrics in "Loser" are a contrast to the optimistic lyrics in "Duck and Run" Which is your preference, optimism or pessimism?
Brad: Optimism. "Loser" was not really saying that about ourself, the song was originally written about a guy we knew when we were growing up, and it was more looking at his attitude towards life, when he got too far into drugs and stuff, and it is more or less looking at his outlook at life and of how the world sees him through the drugs and how he views everyone's opinion of him and wanting him and telling him to stop and it's just more or less about his outlook on other people's opinion. Whereas "Duck and Run" I think is more personal for us, at least I think, because that's the attitude that I try to have and I think that all of us do, and that's the attitude you have to have. You can't let anything turn you around, you just have to put your head down and go through it.
Rich: Very good
Brad: Yes
Rich: Very good Bradley.
Hardrock.com: Is that the right answer.
Rich: That was a good answer, yeah, I'd agree.

8. A couple of your songs talk about walking on the edge. What are the times in your life that you live like that?
Todd: I was pretty wild when I was like 18, yeah 18.
Chris: About '93 Todd,
Todd: Yeah, when I was about 18 to about 24.
Brad: They (Todd and Matt) didn't have but one foot on the edge, and the other foot was danglin'.
Todd: We were pretty crazy back then man. We had some wild times
Chris: Thank god we made it through them
Todd: Yeah,
Brad: Had like three toes on the cliff,
Chris: We weren't too worried about it then either
Todd: Yeah, we didn't give a damn
Hardrock.com: Were you guys all friends before?
Todd: Yeah, we all grew up together. Me and Chris went to junior high together and Brad and Matt, a little younger, they went to school together. We were all within walking distance of each other. Same little town.

9. Where do you find the biggest temptation in Rock and Roll?
Todd: Saving money,
Chris: I'd say the hardest thing is the alcohol, you know to stay away from it. It's not the drugs, it's not like it used to be, watching VH1. I don't think, the wild back stage stuff, just doesn't go on like it used to. A lot of people just like to chill out. There's still some wild stuff that goes on.
Todd: When we first got out, we were stayin' drunk.
Chris: We stayed drunk the whole time, but now that we've been on the road for a while, we try to chill a little bit. You drop your guard a little now and then and end up on the wagon or off the wagon, or on a sidewalk or with your blanket…in Canada
All: Laughter

10. If life were a TV show, which show would you be in right now?
Todd: I'm not a big TV fan, just Monday Night Football.
Matt: Yeah, Monday Night Football. Fast paced.
Chris: Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

11. Did anyone famous ever come out of Escatawpa?
Chris: No, I doubt it.
Hardrock.com: That is a lot of responsibility.
Todd: What's that.
Hardrock.com: Carrying the Escatawpa name on into infamy.
Chris: Yeah, you know, well, Escatawpa is famous for so much.
Chris: Kicking dogs.
Brad: There was that one guy??
Chris: Beatin' kids.
Brad: There are a few famous people from Mississippi, just not from Escatawpa.
Chris: We got Elvis.
Matt: Yeah, we got the King
Chris: Ain't none of them from Escatawpa.
Brad: Lynyrd Skynyrd from Mississippi.
Todd: They're from Jacksonville.
Brad: Oh, I thought one of those guys was from Mississippi. One of the guys from N'sync is from Mississippi.
Matt: Who cares?

12. Who is your favorite president?
Todd, Chris, Matt: Reagan
Matt: He was the best president. Didn't he get voted the best president of all times? They had like a people's vote….
Brad: I was watching the presidential debate last night, I guess it was a rerun or something because it was on at two o'clock last night, and I couldn't determine which one of those guys was more full of ****.
Rich: It was a sad decision to look at it.
Matt: Gore and George W Bush
Hardrock.com: How about Ralph Nader.
Matt: I can't believe that those guys spend the money. Pat Buchanan.

13. What talent do you wish you had more of?
Matt: Gee, I think we just all want a little bit of something.
Brad: Just give me a little bit of what you got left over.
Brad: I don't know, I'd like it to be a little easier to sing when I get a sore throat. If I had to ask for something. Wouldn't be no fun.

14. If you could change your name, what would it be?
Todd: Puddin, 240 pounds of puddin
Chris: I've never thought about it, to be honest with you.
Todd: Me neither. It took us so long to come up with the one we've got, I don't want to think….
Chris: He's not talking about a band names. He 's talking individual names.
Matt: Bubba.
All: Laughter
Todd: Dirk Digler

15. If you could witness a moment in history, which would you choose?
Rich: Wow, that's a good question.
Todd: Maybe the night the Beatles started or something.
Brad: I would like to see the Berlin wall come down.
Matt: Yeah, we were alive. We saw it on TV
Brad: That'd be pretty cool.
Chris: Good answer Brad, I'll go with him.
Hardrock.com: You'd like to be there too
Chris: Yeah, I'll go with him
Brad: He seen like one of the last guard checks.
Chris: Yeah
Brad: They were just fixin to tear it down.
Hardrock.com: You instigated the whole take down of the Berlin Wall, you're saying?
Chris: No, I just got a picture of one of the last guard checks. I was standing there, right there in Berlin. As I was taking a picture of it, they were going at it, tearing the wall down. It was all guarded so people wouldn't take pieces of the wall, I just opened the door to the van and took a picture and that was it.
Hardrock.com: Two months later it was on ebay for sale.
Chris: Right, I have a brick of it in my tool shed.
Matt: It kinda down played that whole thing when you saw it at Service Merchandise for sale.

16. So, how can you have a "better life"?
Todd: Just do what you want to do.
Brad: Just find what you like to do in life, no matter what it is.
Chris: Because no matter how bad the day gets and the week gets and the month gets, when you do what we do, you can always just kinda stop and smile.
Brad: I think that goes for anybody who does what they love to do. This is all that we've always wanted to do. Each person I'm sure has their own thing that they'd like to do. I mean if you make a lot of money or not, if you can go home at night and lay your head down on your pillow and say, you know what, I enjoyed that today, that's all that matters, really. I'd rather have a job that I enjoyed and didn't make as much money than a job that I made a lot of money and hated.
Todd and Chris: Been there.

17. Which one of you guys snores?
Brad Anderson: Them two (pointing at Matt and Rich), Bad.
Todd: They sound horrible, man.
Brad: They need some kind of surgical correction. They do not sound healthy.
You need one of them nose things.
Rich: I need a nose job, look.
Chris: I'll give you one.

18. If there were a movie made about 3 Doors Down, who would play each of you?
Matt: That's a good question. I'd like Matthew McConaughey to play my part.
Todd: I'd like Danny DeVito to play mine.
All: Laughter
Chris: Samuel Jackson.
Rich: John Malcovich. That would be cool.
Brad: I don't know if there is anybody with a big enough --- to play my part.
Hardrock.com: You didn't say Leonardo DiCaprio
Brad: No
Hardrock.com: That is a box office draw.
Brad: Yeah

19. If you found out one of the other band members was dating your girlfriend, what would be more important: the girl or the band?
Matt: I don't think we've got that to worry about. No, I don't think that's the real issue.
Chris: It depends on who you talk to.
Todd: I'm going to say the band.
Matt: My first priority is the band.
Chris: The band.
Matt: This is not only a career for one person, but for five, and more than that in reality looking at it, so it's not only one individual and certainly you have to take that aspect of it and your girlfriend and whatever.
Chris: If it came down to that the decision would be… see ya later, honey.
Rich: Just don't show this at the Hard Rock in New Orleans, it's a little too close to home.

20. What are you reading?
Chris: Interview with a Vampire, for the third time.
Hardrock.com: Why
Chris: It's a great book man, no way around it. It's a great book.
Hardrock.com: Don't you want to read any more Anne Rice?
Chris: Read them all, just about. Except for the erotic stuff, I don't want to get into that.
Todd: I'm a big fan of Playboy
Matt: He just looks at the pictures. I just got through reading my first Harry Potter book, I had to see what that was all about.
Hardrock.com: You liked it?
Matt: Yeah, it was pretty good. I never got into the witches and that kind of thing, but it was pretty cool. Definitely great kids stories.
Hardrock.com: Are you going to read the next one?
Matt: Yeah, for sure. I have to finish them now. I have to see where it is going.
Hardrock.com: Did you read The Hobbit or anything?
Chris: Yep, read that.
Brad: I don't read much. I have a short attention span. I've been getting bored. I'm always scared that I'm going to get half way through it and think, man, this thing sucks. Ya no, having read half a damn book.
Rich: I'm more of a magazine guy.
Brad: Yeah, me too.

PLUS FIVE BONUS QUESTIONS!

21. What brand of cereal best describes you.
All five: Lucky Charms.
Hardrock.com: Why?
Brad: I just like them.
Todd: They're magically delicious.
Hardrock.com: You've been getting a lot of luck??
Chris: Definitely.
Hardrock.com: Like what?
Chris: Sitting right here, man. You can't get luckier than this.
Hardrock.com: Why you and not some other band?
Chris: I don't know, timing.
Todd: We just stuck it out, ya no, we've been through a lot stuff and done it together.
Brad: I think it's because we know where we came from and there is no danger of us forgetting it. We know why we're here and who put us here, it's just that we're not the kind of people who are going to say that we did all of this by ourselves. We may do music and we record an album, and a record company put us out there and…
Chris: The fans put us here.
Brad: 5 people don't sell 3 million records.
Todd: Not without some help. All them middle men.
Chris: All the fans.

22. What do the fans see in you that they may not be seeing in the other bands?
Todd: I think when you come to see our show, you're going to see something real. We put on a real good rock and roll show. I think people are just hungry for that again. They're tired of all this angry stuff.
Brad: They're tired of the stuff that seems fake, put on.

23. Any particular teacher had an influence on you?
Todd: I had a football coach who was one mean bastard.
Chris: I had the same coach and he probably had the biggest influence on my life. He was balls to the wall, hard work makes a man out of you, it will pay off.
Todd: A lot of hard work will pay off.
Chris: How to profess ethics, which he didn't sport much of the time, but he expected it from you. It was a-do-as-I-say-not-what-I-do type of situation. He commanded respect and that's what he got.
Brad: The lyrics to Kryptonite were written in my high school algebra class, I guess that had a little bit of influence.

24. Your Kryptonite video tells a story. Do you like videos that tell a story?
Brad: Have you seen the Loser video yet? The Kryptonite video is somewhat comical and it's made to be like that, but it looks at the super hero and how he's kinda old and out of shape and he's looking at the TV screen in the beginning of it and looking at how he used to be and he is all down and washed up and stuff. And then he looks at the girl to the side being beat up by her pimp or whatever and he's chasing them throughout the video and she kisses him at the end. The Loser video is a lot different. It's a lot more realistic. It's set in a high school. We set it in a high school out in California, and it just goes through the school and at all of the different cliques and how a lot of them feel alone and in their own little place. It's a cool video.

25. At Hard Rock Cafe, we have a slogan, Love All, Serve All. What does that mean to you?
Chris: It's a good slogan.
Todd: It's a good way to look at things.
Rich: It sounds like the Golden Rule to me, just repressed a little bit. Treat others as you'd like to be treated.
Brad: If the whole world had that slogan, it'd be pretty cool.
Rich: Yeah.

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