Comment from Heinerken
Date: September 5, 2008, 9:11 pm

This is awesome!

Comment from Dewey1040
Date: September 6, 2008, 9:38 am

my favorite singer of all time just pulled a fucking ashlee simpson…

Comment from Peter
Date: September 6, 2008, 10:21 am

what do you mean he pulled an ashee simpson?!!? i haven’t seen it yet lol

Comment from salastna
Date: September 6, 2008, 10:39 am

That was a travesty. I am really ashamed of Brent.

Comment from Dewey1040
Date: September 6, 2008, 10:43 am

go to nbc.com go to jay leno and go to the last chapter of last nights episode and watch it… he most definately is not singing

Comment from taznewjackdreamer
Date: September 6, 2008, 10:52 am

I’m still on the fence about it but I am leaning towards agreeing with you Dewey. I am by no means an expert on this but I see where you’re coming from and if you hadn’t said anything I may not have noticed. If it is in fact true I am disappointed too.

Comment from youliedtome
Date: September 6, 2008, 11:02 am

So i just watched it…and yea hes gotta be lip syncing… reasons… well ive listened to this sound about 150 times from the cd and its the exact same, no band or singer that i know sounds the exact same on the cd as they do live. brent sounds better live. but we also gotta remember they are doing this for a national audience. do you want to sound different or bad for them? not really. us fans just love the live experience…so i guess it was a good move maybe more people will pick up the album now….hmmm

Comment from Mikel
Date: September 6, 2008, 11:04 am

I couldn’t find the video footage dewey, can anyone find a link…it wasn’t on youtube.

Comment from Mikel
Date: September 6, 2008, 11:07 am

and no, it’s never justified to lip synch.

Comment from salastna
Date: September 6, 2008, 11:08 am

http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/video/episodes.shtml
Go there Mikel and click Sept 06. Then click on the last chapter.

Comment from salastna
Date: September 6, 2008, 11:08 am

Sept 5th, my bad.

Comment from mattjames1708
Date: September 6, 2008, 11:28 am

yes lip syncing could be justified in ways…..i mean you never know he might have strained his voice……i mean alot of people dont take that into effect esp. when they go and see them live and say the singer sounds like shit…..well they are out every night screaming there lungs out of course there gonna sound bad.

Comment from Meagan
Date: September 6, 2008, 1:30 pm

If you have a strained voice, wouldn’t you know beforehand? Why book a “live performance” when you know that your voice is fucked.

And didn’t Ashlee Simpson do the same thing on Leno? or was that SNL? Either way, WTF. WTF. WTF.

Comment from Peter
Date: September 6, 2008, 1:35 pm

that was crazy!! i just watched it a little while ago and played it along with the song. so were the instruments actually played? or was that faked too?

Comment from mattjames1708
Date: September 6, 2008, 1:43 pm

well i agree with you meagan…….but leno is also a huge show where they could maybe get noticed by some new fans…..usually concerts just draw people who already are fans……leno just some random people watch the show and may see shinedown and love what they see and they get added to the list….but if they went on there sounding like total shit they arent going to draw anymore fans.

Comment from geordy
Date: September 6, 2008, 1:53 pm

he uses a vocal track at live shows during the chorus of certain songs, no idea which off the top of my head, but yeah, he’s done it for a while. I guess the alternative is to do like Tool and drastically limit the catalog of songs you play live.

Comment from Mikel
Date: September 6, 2008, 2:19 pm

mattjames, you’re justifying lip synching by getting more fans and sells. That to me would be right up there with the definition of selling out my friend.

Comment from Chris
Date: September 6, 2008, 2:47 pm

A lot TV appearances, music videos, etc are lip synced. Who cares! You get the chance to play on a national TV show with who knows how many people tuned, you’re going to want to sound your best. A lot of people complained when they did Conan a few years ago because the audio was awful.

Maybe his voice was strained… like I said above, would you back out of the chance to play Leno with who knows how many people tuned in?

Personally, I could care less as long as when I go see a concert the vocalist is actually singing and every time I’ve seen Shinedown, Brent has be doing so.

Lip syncing has its place as long as it isn’t being done when people have paid money to see you perform.

Comment from Mikel
Date: September 6, 2008, 3:00 pm

I guess i just disagree with that Chris.

Comment from Meagan
Date: September 6, 2008, 4:38 pm

I’m not sure about everyone else, but I would rather have had seen him sing poorly rather than lip sync. I’m with Mikel, lip syncing = selling out. It’s disappointing because this is the last band that I’d expect this from.

Comment from Dewey1040
Date: September 6, 2008, 5:26 pm

lip syncing is never justified, if you are going to PERFORM ON A SHOW you should PERFORM ON THAT SHOW… not fake what you are doing. what is the point of going on stage if you are going to play something already recorded? they could’ve just sat down had a chat with leno and played a clip from the song it would’ve been just as good if not better because it would’ve been real and truthful.

Comment from salastna
Date: September 6, 2008, 6:23 pm

Most, if not all, rock bands that play in those late night shows never lip synch. I dont know where you got that info Chris. Even the worst of the live singers single live. Take the dude from Puddle Of Mudd, he sounds horrible live but he didnt lip synch. There is no excuse for this.

Comment from salastna
Date: September 6, 2008, 6:25 pm

Shit, I dont even remember even seeing a rap guy lip synch.

Comment from Meagan
Date: September 6, 2008, 8:28 pm

lol @ salastna

and Dewey, I completely agree… this was completely not justified. I just lost a lot of respect for Brent Smith…

Comment from mattjames1708
Date: September 6, 2008, 8:46 pm

out of a billion shows he has done he lip synced once to a crowd of people that probably wasnt there to see them but went to see probably some stupid celebrity actor or actress….hell i wouldnt be surprised if the only people that really watched leno that night to see shinedown was the people who read the post on tunelab then flipped on the tv to see it…..i just dont think you should lose respect in him for just one show

Comment from VBlake
Date: September 7, 2008, 1:22 pm

this forum would probably crumble if the list of singers using vocal tracks at least once in their career was released. and although it may not be justified, it happens. Brent’s range is incredible and its quite possible that his voice may of been strained. I don’t think Leno is something you can “reschedule” that easily when your throat hurts. Give him a Second Chance! ;)

Comment from Mikel
Date: September 7, 2008, 3:20 pm

I don’t have so much against using some vocal tracks here and there, but outright lip synching just shouldn’t happen in my opinion.

Comment from Justinw303
Date: September 7, 2008, 9:38 pm

People, please. Anyone who’s seen him live knows he doesn’t lip synch, and he has a great voice.

Now, like some have said before me, it’s freakin Jay Leno. It wasn’t the Brent Smith show, it was Jay Leno. If he had voice problems, or if he merely did it to snag a few more fans, what does it matter?

Call him a sell-out if you’d like, but money makes the world the go round and if he was trying to sell a few more records to some casual music fans, then I don’t mind one bit. All that matters to me is what his real, live shows are like.

Comment from jdrummerboy
Date: September 7, 2008, 11:09 pm

Hate to break it to you, but this does happen a lot. People want bands to play 5 or 6 nights a week…many singers just can’t pull that off without destroying their voices. It doesn’t change the fact that they’re great singers, they’re just not robots. I guess I’m in the middle on it. I get why it’s done and can accept it to an extent, but I don’t think it should be used all the time. And I don’t think it should be used to cover up crappy singers…running vocal tracks have made many a crappy singer sound waaay better than they really are. And not just ’cause they’re voice is shot…they just aren’t good to start with and are total creations of protools. Brent is the real deal, no doubt about it. I really don’t think this diminishes him in any way.

Comment from Chris
Date: September 10, 2008, 11:00 am

Not sure if anyone is still checking this, but someone on Shinedown’s message board asked Zach if Brent did lip sync on Leno after a concert a couple nights ago. Zach said they did use back tracks, but Brent did not lip sync.

Comment from cris77
Date: September 10, 2008, 1:15 pm

LOL well im sure they did say that.. who would come out and admit it? If anyone remembers the way they sounded on leno the last time when they did 45 then you can see why they did this. Tracks are a part of this biz and shinedown is one of the hardest working bands in rock music right now. So if his voice was shot before the show and their only decision was ” do i go out here and sound like crap and kill our careers or do I run tracks” That is a simple decisions. We personally in OLR have never run tracks of any kind but i cant say there were a few nights my throat was hurting that i wished we did have them. We toured with a huge band and one thing their singer told me that made so much sense he said ” I work 5 nights a week, that is a full time job and i dont get paid over time”. So to ask someone to hurt themselves or ruin their throats just to make everyone happy is silly. I bet you anything this week you will see on the billboard charts a spike in shinedown sales because of this performance… because most people watching dont even know what tracking is.