{"id":544190,"date":"2026-07-26T02:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T02:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/544190\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T02:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T02:08:17","slug":"shinedowns-brent-smith-reflects-on-knoxville-roots-ahead-of-local-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/544190\/","title":{"rendered":"Shinedown\u2019s Brent Smith reflects on Knoxville roots ahead of local concert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">What This Story Is About<\/p>\n<p>Shinedown lead singer Brent Smith, a Knoxville native, sat down with a local reporter ahead of the band\u2019s concert at Food City Center to talk about \u201cgrowing up in K-Town,\u201d his old jobs and his family still in the area.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Why It Matters<\/p>\n<p>Shinedown holds the record for the most No. 1 songs ever by a mainstream rock band. The front man\u2019s local ties give Knoxville audiences a personal connection to one of the biggest acts in rock music.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">What Happens Next<\/p>\n<p>Shinedown performs at Food City Center Saturday night. Some tickets remain available.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">For Context<\/p>\n<p>Smith attended Elementary, Middle and High School in Knoxville before his music career took off. He said family members, including his father, still live in Knoxville.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Catch Up<\/p>\n<p>Shinedown is a mainstream rock band known for a record-setting string of No. 1 hits. Smith, 48, spoke with reporter Ted Hall. The full interview is available on WVLT+.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) \u2014 Shinedown lead singer Brent Smith grew up in Knoxville and attended New Hopewell Elementary School, South Doyle Middle School and South Doyle High School before the band went on to record the most No. 1 songs ever by a mainstream rock band.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Smith spoke with reporter Ted Hall ahead of Shinedown\u2019s concert at Food City Center on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"link | text-reset d-block h-100 w-100\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wvlt.tv\/page\/wvlt-news-and-weather-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_self\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"wvlt\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/EAFJZDKWSJFMFGBA5C5FOEW7NM.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a>Knoxville jobs and school days<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Before his music career, Smith said he worked a string of jobs across the city \u2014 including at restaurants along the Cumberland Avenue Strip, Musician\u2019s Friend on Pellissippi Parkway, Winn-Dixie on Chapman Highway, and in landscaping and irrigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI worked at pretty much every single restaurant on the Cumberland Avenue Strip,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He also played multiple sports at South Doyle, including football, basketball and wrestling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cOut of all of them, I was probably a better basketball player,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>Family ties to Knoxville<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Smith, 48, said his father and his cousin Doris and her husband still live in Knoxville. He said he enjoys surprising his father with unannounced visits \u2014 laundry bag in hand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019m blessed to be able to call myself a Knoxvillian and be born and raised in K-Town,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt\u2019s always a blessing when I can come back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Shinedown performs at Food City Center Saturday night. Some tickets remain available. The full interview with Smith is available on WVLT+.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WVLT. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What This Story Is About Shinedown lead singer Brent Smith, a Knoxville native, sat down with a local&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[13034,42944,3623,54336,2199,25759,61751,156,564,2959,103540,3025,157,111,139,4061,69,5270,1629,4062,267467,16189,4626,1240],"class_list":["post-544190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-alumni","tag-brent","tag-celebrity","tag-center","tag-city","tag-concert","tag-doyle","tag-entertainment","tag-food","tag-high","tag-knoxville","tag-most","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-number","tag-nz","tag-one","tag-rock","tag-school","tag-shinedown","tag-smith","tag-songs","tag-south"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}