Rock fans have been enjoying 3 Doors Down for over two decades as the band is recently celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album, The Better Life. The group is releasing a special anniversary edition of their 2000 record, and are celebrating during their iHeartRadio LIVE with 3 Doors Down: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of The Better Life on March 26th.
In a sneak peek of the exclusive show, 3 Doors Down's Brad Arnold took a stroll down memory lane as he recalled a scary memory from the band's early days when one of their vans went up in flames on the way to their first big show. At the time, the band did not have a tour bus, or their own cars, and while on the way to one of their first big shows in Tampa, Florida, one of the vehicles they took to get there went up in flames. He explained:
"We had Todd's mom's Silverado hauling, like a tandem axle U-Haul, and I was in my mom's Camry. And we struck out from the south of Mississippi headed to Tampa, and we got right on the other side of Pensacola. We'd left early, because we were driving down there that morning for a show that night. And, we came over this one little river, the bridge over this river, and it was real foggy being real early like that. We came across that bridge and the fog didn't go away. And I seen Todd's truck smoking, and they was pulling off the side of the road, and I pulled around in front of him. And you could just see fire dripping out from underneath this truck, this little drop. And we jumped out ... everybody scrammed, and they left everything in the truck. And it took me maybe two or three minutes, but in about two or three minutes, there was a 30 foot flame shooting out of the front of that truck. It didn't burn the U-Haul [or] hurt our equipment or anything. But that truck was a shell. Man, it was a trip. Nobody would stop and help us. We were just like ... watch it burn."
The new anniversary edition of The Better Life drops on March 26th, along with the band's demo recordings from 1996, The Escatawpa Sessions. The box set includes the 3 LP's, extensive liner notes, exclusive photos, a lithograph, and more, including new tracks like "The Better Life (XX Mix) and "Dead Love."
Fans can listen and tune in free for a stream of the exclusive iHeartRadio LIVE with 3 Doors Down: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of The Better Life on Friday, March 26th at 8pm ET/5pm PT via iHeartRadio's YouTube channel. Fans can also listen to the show via iHeartRadio's Rock Nation station.