In June, Canadian emerging metal crew Spiritbox received the good news that they’d be going on tour with infamous nu-metal legends Limp Bizkit.
However, in August they got hit with bad news that due to ongoing safety issues surrounding COVID-19, Bizkit would be canceling the tour. The band was left in a lurch, prompting several fans to donate money to their tour relief — including one Brent Smith from hard rockers Shinedown, who left the band gobsmacked by donating $10,000 to their cause.
Speaking to MetalSucks, guitarist Mike Stringer said:
“Brent [Smith] from Shinedown, he just came out of nowhere. We never even met him before, and he just wanted to help. He hit up our management and was like, ‘I felt horrible what happened and I would hate for this band to not be able to continue due to this and I just want to contribute.’
And he sent us $10,000… which is just. I’m still speechless. I don’t even know what we could ever do to repay him and those guys. And even just him thinking about us in that way is just so incredible.
Mike went on to point out that Brent wasn’t the only artist who went above and beyond for Spiritbox:
“We Came As Romans, they lent us an entire light package, we rented it from them for the tour and when we gave it back to them they didn’t even charge us. They were like, ‘You know what, don’t worry about it. We feel horrible.’ And just the companies that helped us, like [bus rental company] Bandwagon.
“There’s so many people that are so kind these days and it’s just amazing to see musicians helping out other musicians. It’s definitely a great opportunity for us to pay it forward when we can. That’s the first thing I thought about. Man, I just can’t wait until, if we ever get to be in the position to do this for someone else, I can’t wait until we can do that. Just a wild situation to be in.”
Check out the full interview below. Words by Chris Krovatin
