Many rockstars like to live in elaborate houses and experience lavish lives, but not Shinedown frontman Brent Smith. In fact, he’s revealed that he doesn’t miss having a permanent home because he’s “a true minimalist” who’s preferred the nomad lifestyle for roughly a decade.
Why Brent Smith Prefers the Nomad Life?
Smith recently appeared on LA Lloyd’s Rock 30 podcast (uploaded to YouTube on June 18) to discuss fatherhood, growth and other inspiring personal insights.
About nine minutes into their conversation, Lloyd mentioned that Smith sold his California home in 2016 because he “spend[s] more time on the road than [he does] at home.” He then asked Smith: “Is there a place that you call ‘home’ or your base, or is it just the tour bus or do you see a place down the road that maybe will be considered ‘home’?”
Smith responded:
It’s interesting, man. Like, growing up and then – you know – getting the life that I asked for to actually be a reality. I remember my parents – in the first few records and album cycles – my mom and my dad, . . . were still working, and there were a lot of people that said to my mom, they were like, “It almost seems like he’s running from something.” My mom was like, “No, he’s running towards everything,” and I always thought that was—and she came up with that. I think it kind of floored people, and there used to be this idea that I was homeless, and . . . my mom was like, “He’s not homeless. He’s home free”
Smith also talked about how his family still connects him to certain places.
“My home is with my son, you know, so I definitely have roots in Florida because of him,” he clarified, continuing:
And I have roots in Tennessee. I’m in Nashville a lot. I mean, the last couple of years, I was in South Carolina with Eric [Bass, Shinedown bassist/guitarist] pretty much all the time. Again, like, when I had the house out in California in 2010 to 2016, I was just doing a lot out in California. I was working on a lot of different things – obviously with the band – and it made sense. Then, it just got to a point where I was, like, “I kind of did what I needed to do here. I need to move on.”
For me, I’ve just never, ever had an issue being on the road. I think there’s a level of—because I’m the one in the band—obviously, the four of us (myself and Eric and Zach [Myers, guitarist/pianist] and Barry [Kerch, drummer]) were with each other a lot, and they all have home bases and things like that. But, I’m also the one in the band that’s doing a lot of the behind-the-scenes with regards to the business, and like, what are the next steps and how are we gonna negotiate certain things? A lot of times, you know, just to make an impact, I will fly to where I need to go. And if it’s overseas, I’ll just fly overseas. I can kind of get up by living the way that I do; I can kind of move on a dime, and it just works for me.
Smith added: “Am I saying that I’ll never have a home base? No. I just don’t know where that is currently.”
Lloyd followed-up by mentioning “the old saying ‘he’s living out of a suitcase,’” expounding:
That must be one hell of a suitcase when you’re living the way you are, and of course, you gotta pack and prep for a tour. I mean, I’ve even seen some jokes about, like, “Brent’s got this huge suitcase when he goes out. What is it like prepping for a tour of this magnitude?”
“I’d downgraded my suitcases recently,” Smith responded.
He elaborated:
It’s one of the things, too, like people will say it online. They’re, like, “He wears the same thing all the time.” And I’m, like, “Yeah, you’re right.” ‘Cause it works for me too. Now, I mean, for me, it’s pretty simple. I’m what is considered a – I am a true minimalist. So, I don’t own, like, stuff. I don’t have any kind of stuff. I don’t save necessarily anything unless it’s from fans that we’ll put in storage or in the wardrobe cases and things like that. But, like, I really don’t own anything, and again, that just works for me.
Smith even contrasted his approach to packing with the approaches of his bandmates:
Barry is probably a bit of the over-packer and has all these very meticulous things in the way that he does certain things, so he’s a little bit more of that. There’s a lot of . . . creature comforts that he has to have, so he does things a specific way. Zach had a shoe case built for tour, so that tells you that right there. But, Zach kind of has his very specific things that he likes and, you know, how he puts things together. Eric’s probably a little bit more like me, where he kind of comes out kind of minimalistic. Eric kind of wears the same thing as well on a daily basis. He doesn’t really change it up.
Overall, though, Smith reflected that “more than anything,” the band have “learned over time not to overpack.”
He concluded:
The beautiful thing about being on tour is you’re—I mean, yeah, and you gotta pay for it, but you can pretty much – when you’re out here – just send somebody out to get whatever you need. You know, like, tour is not the real world. It’s kind of an interesting place to live in. It’s very much—it’s a lot of hard work, but you kind of learn what you can facilitate out here and how you pack. Over the years, I think that the four of us have all kind of—I think everybody’s learned to be a little less of, like, pack rats, ’cause you can kind of grab whatever you need while you’re out here.
You can see the full episode below:
Brent Smith Discusses Nomad Lifestyle + More With LA Loyd (June 18, 2026)
READ MORE: Shinedown Honor Fan Request, Play Song Live for First Time in 18 Years
Other Brent Smith + Shinedown News
Last month, Shinedown released their eighth studio LP (appropriately titled Ei8ht) via Atlantic Records. It follows 2022’s Planet Zero, and back in April, Smith said it’s the band’s best effort yet in his ranking of every Shinedown album. To his point, it received rave reviews from Classic Rock magazine, the Associated Press and Blabbermouth.
Shinedown are also in the midst of the “Dance, Kid, Dance Act II” world tour (featuring special guests Coheed and Cambria, Black Stone Cherry, Those Damn Crows and From Ashes to New). They’ve actually got dates stretching until the end of November, and you can see the full list of tour stops – and grab tickets – here.
Earlier this month, Loudwire included Shinedown in our list of 29 bands that are ‘dad rock’ now (and there’s nothing you can do about it). Feel free to check out the full list and let us know if you agree or disagree with Shinedown (or any other band) being included!
What do you think of Smith’s outlook on living the nomad life? Let us know!
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Gallery Credit: Rob Carroll
