The Big Picture

Rock band Papa Roach is celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2025, with North American tour dates for “Rise of the Roach” with Rise Against.
Over the course of his career, frontman Jacoby Shaddix has focused on the importance of mental health, reflecting that in songs like “Last Resort” and “Leave a Light On.”
Shaddix remains open to new experiences and collaborations, and values music’s power to heal and inspire.

Rock band Papa Roach is heading into their 25th anniversary in 2025, fresh off the mega success of singer Jacoby Shaddix’s duet with Carrie Underwood on “Leave a Light On (Talk Away the Dark)” and with the “Rise of the Roach” North American tour with Rise Against kicking off in March, where you’ll get to hear both play hits and fan favorites from their catalogues. Starting out, Shaddix marked success by getting a record deal, with the goal then expanding to selling 100,000 records. Having come a long way since the days he would sell Papa Roach CDs for $5 at Korn concerts, the frontman and his band are calling their own shots outside of the major record label system, and don’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Collider recently got the opportunity to hop onto Zoom with Shaddix and chat about music, the challenge of maintaining a career in the music industry, the importance of calling attention to mental health awareness, from the release of their first hit single “Last Resort” to Shaddix’s recent duet with pop-country superstar Underwood on “Leave a Light On,” and how his wife and kids keep him grounded with their honest opinions about his songs. He also talked about what it’s like to still be experiencing success, all these years later, what it’s like to hear from fans that have been deeply affected by the band’s music, whether you know when you have a great song, and how he hopes to continue blending musical genres.

Papa Roach Frontman Jacoby Shaddix Has Learned That Getting Vulnerable Often Leads to Deeper Connection
Image via Bryson Roatch

Collider: First of all, “Leave a Light On (Talk Away the Dark)” is an absolutely beautiful song. It takes guts and courage and a little bit of fearlessness to put a voice to things that people typically avoid talking about. Congratulations on all of that.

JACOBY SHADDIX: Thank you very much. I appreciate the compliments. I’m super grateful for this song and the way it’s been received, and the cause wrapped around it, and the purpose. This is purpose-driven music. It’s taken us to a lot of different places. It’s opened up a lot of different doors for us, which is awesome, especially this deep into our career. We started this band back in high school. I’ve been with these dudes since ‘93, doing this. It’s been a wild journey for us. I’ve had my highs and I’ve had some real low lows, but the thing that’s been consistent is my relationship with this band and my relationship with this music. The way that I’ve been able to just really be vulnerable and throw myself into it, sometimes I really take risks creatively and sometimes I fall flat on my face, and I’m willing to do that. But then, sometimes those risks end up being wildly successful.

We’ve got a good reputation on the business side. I remember early on we did a tour with Korn and the drummer for Faith No More was filling in on drums. It was my birthday and one of the security guards said the drummer wanted to give me a birthday gift. He was like, “Hey, man, you guys are on your way to the top right now, man. Here’s my birthday gift to you.” I was like, “All right, cool,” and I was waiting for some wisdom. He’s one of my favorite drummers of all time. And he was like, “You know, the same people you meet on the way to the top are gonna be the same people you meet on your way to the bottom, so act accordingly.” I remember that, to this day. That was some of the best advice I’d gotten, as a young artist. I took my lumps and I probably pissed some people off, but in general, the reputation that we have is a good one. I treat people the way I wanna be treated. That’s just how I roll.

This business is so small and everybody knows each other, and things change so often. The advice I got was to always be nice to people because you never know which assistant today is going to be running the company tomorrow.

SHADDIX: No shit. That’s facts, right there.

Carrie Underwood Was Already a Papa Roach Fan, Before Recording “Leave a Light On” With Jacoby Shaddix
Image via Bryson Roatch

How did “Leave a Light On” come about? Were you specifically setting out to do this song or did this song just happen, and then you realized what you had?

SHADDIX: To take it back to the beginning of the career to set it up, “Last Resort,” our first breakout single, was about one of my best friends when I was young, attempting suicide, and the song was essentially about that cry for help. There’s a lyric in the song that says, “I can’t go on living this way.” And so, we’ve been singing about this mental health struggle, and I’ve had my battles with it, through the years. I know the darkness, so the mental health conversation has been part of our conversation since the beginning of our band’s career. I’ve exposed myself in a lot of ways with that, and it’s helped me come to an understanding. I’ve gained a lot of tools to be able to deal with those things in my life, and I’ve done it through this music and through therapy and through sobriety and through spirituality, which led us to this point where we are now. I remember when we were in the studio, we’d lost another friend to suicide and we went around the room, and both of our producers, everybody in the band, the engineers, and everybody had been directly touched by suicide in some way, whether it was a friend or a family member. In that moment, we all realized, “This is fucking heavy. This is a real problem.” And then, we started doing research and found out that it’s a leading cause of death in America and it’s increasing. I had young boys that were moving away to college at that time, and I wanted to have a message of hope that’s a response to the cry for help of “Last Resort.”

Our music is very intentional. As we were writing this, we wanted it to express that desperation, but also express a message of hope and, “I’m here for you, no matter what. No matter how far out there you feel you are or how hopeless life can be or how hopeless you might feel, I’m always here.” That’s an important message. I’ve received that message from people in my life, and I’ve been able to extend that helping hand of hope to brothers and sisters in my life. I’ve seen it from both sides and I know that music can heal because it’s done that in my life. I know that music can inspire hope and it can inspire strength in people because it’s done that in my life. And so, the song is a true reflection of that.

And then, we went out on tour and my producer, Nick Furlong, hit me up and was like, “Dude, this group, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, has a movement called Talk Away The Dark.” I was like, “No way.” Our song is called “Leave a Light On.” The song is about being a helping hand to somebody in a broken moment in their life, and that’s exactly the work that the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention was doing. All these things just came together and it was a perfect fit. Things just kept falling into place. I feel that when you’re intentional about making art by taking pain and turning it into purpose, it will find its home in people’s hearts, and this one just connected in a deep and meaningful way with our fans.

We had always envisioned a guest on the song as well, and the next thing I knew, we heard an interview that Carrie Underwood was doing on the radio with Jose Mangin from Octane, and she was talking about her love for rock and metal music. She was like, “I love Papa Roach. We listen to Papa Roach all the time at the house.” I heard that and I was like, “Dude, this is sick. Let’s invite her out to a show.” So, her and her husband came out to our show in Nashville and we hit it off. They’re good people, and she loved the show. Me and my wife ended up in Vegas, so we went and watched her show at Reflections when she was doing her residency. We were hanging out – me and my wife and her sisters – and at the end of the night, my wife was like, “It would be a dream to hear you on a song with my husband.” And Carrie and I looked at each other like, “That would be tight.” I left and hit the team up and said, “Dude, she’s a fan. Maybe she’s the person that’s the guest vocal on this song.” So, we hit her up and we told her about the cause and the movement for the song, knowing that she was a fan of the band, and she hit it back with, “Yo, I’m in.” All these cool, organic, natural pieces of this puzzle came together and it just keeps broadening the reach and the scope of how this song is impacting people, and it’s just tripping me out, man. It’s fucking cool.

People have the tendency to believe that country and rock music are somehow vastly different, but great singers are great singers, and great songs are great songs. What have you found that you enjoy about that blending of genres and styles and experiences when it comes to music? After doing this song, could you ever see yourself doing an album of duets with different artists from different genres?

SHADDIX: I love genre bending and blending. I think it’s awesome. We’ve been doing it with bringing in elements of hip-hop in our music, elements of pop, elements of electronica, elements of folk, and all these quirky elements that we put together. With “Leave a Light On,” it’s got a little bit of twang to it. It’s always fun to break down walls and try new things, creatively. I really enjoyed this collaboration with Carrie and sharing this song with her. Even just being in the studio and listening to her put her vocal on it, I was like, “Oh, this is inspiring.” Her and I got in the room and sang together, and I’ve done a couple of duets in my day, but there’s something special about singing with that lady. She’s got some magic in her voice, and that inspired me.

I love collaborating with people outside of the genre. I’ve done that with Kazo and Sullivan King from the EDM/dubstep world. I’ve worked with dudes in the metal world. I’ve worked with the Black Eyed Peas. We did a song called “Anxiety” on their big breakout album, Elephunk. I’ve really enjoyed that, through the years. I definitely feel like there’s a lot more room for collaboration in the future. Two albums ago, for Crooked Teeth, we had Machine Gun Kelly on our song, called “Sunrise Trailer Park.” It’s something that’s near and dear to my heart. I love breaking walls down. Another guest we had on one of our songs, Skylar Grey, did a vocal on a song of ours, called “Periscope.” This was has just seemed to hit and it’s really cool. I definitely look forward to more genre-bending, genre-blending collaboration.

When you write a song like “Leave a Light On,” do you worry about it being too far outside of what people consider the Papa Roach sound to be, or do you feel like that doesn’t really matter, as long as the emotional connection is there?

SHADDIX: I think it’s important for us to get out of our comfort zone, honestly. I think that’s when we’ve made some of our biggest leaps in our career. Taking it back to an album of ours called Getting Away With Murder, it was a time when the taste in music had really shifted away from the nu metal style, and we were part of that nu metal wave. We had a song called “Scars” that was very different, and I was like, “Are you sure the fans are gonna love this?” But there was something so real and authentic about that song, and so raw and emotional, that we said, “We have to put this out.” When we get out of our comfort zone and we feel uncomfortable about something, that’s when we’re knocking on the door of something special. Even in my life, when I stay in my comfort zone, my life gets stagnant. I’m always challenging myself. And so, when I apply that to the artistic space, it pops off for us sometimes. “Scars” was one of those songs that’s now a Papa Roach classic, but at the time, a lot of fans were like, “Woah, what the fuck are you guys doing?” But then, they took to it and it soon became a classic for us. It’s one of our top-streamed songs, and it’s totally outside the box. When we first came in with “Last Resort,” that’s punk and hip-hop and metal, blended together. It’s important for us to keep pushing the boundaries. The album Ego Trip is about extremes, and “Leave a Light On” is another one of those extremes.

Jacoby Shaddix Has Learned To Trust His Gut When He Thinks Papa Roach Has Written a Great Song
Image via Bryson Roatch

When you have a song like “Leave a Light On” that’s a great song, do you have a sense of that while you’re doing it? Are you someone who can appreciate your own work? Do you know when a great song is a great song?

SHADDIX: There’s always a moment in the room when everybody looks at each other like we’re onto something and we need to keep going down that path. This song was one of those moments, and I live for those moments when we’re in the room together and everybody starts bouncing around because it’s so freaking awesome. That experience, as a writer and a creator, is really fun. Sometimes you can overthink things. For me, I think one of my gifts is that I don’t overthink shit. There are a couple dudes in the band that are very meticulous and wanna fine tune it again, and I’m like, “There’s already something amazing here. Don’t mess with it. Don’t get caught in the weeds.” I have a tendency to be able to pull back and look at it. I’ve got a gut feeling when I feel something’s great, and I’ll go with it. That intuition is important to have. There have been moments in my life when I didn’t have my gut instinct. But now, at this point in my life, in the last 10 years, my gut has been real. My instinct has been strong, and not just in creative spaces, but just in my life, in general, and being able to make life decisions. I know when I’m off the path and I know when I’m on the path because it just feels right. I feel settled.

When you get personal with lyrics and fans connect with that, I would imagine they start sharing their personal stories with you. What’s it like to find yourself in that position and to realize that those lines of communication and that connection that you were opening is actually having a real effect on people?

SHADDIX: Back in 2000/2001, as we were touring for Infest, I started meeting people face-to-face every night after the shows and they were talking about how impactful this music was to them. One of our songs was called “Broken Home,” and I really opened up about how vulnerable and broken I felt from experiencing that, and how many people I had met that identified and understood. Hearing their stories, I was like, “Wow, this is therapeutic. This group therapy, in a weird way.” It wasn’t something that I intended, but I stumbled on it. I had a friend of mine, back in ’99, that inspired me to really dig into my personal life and pull those things out and write about them. Before then, a lot of nineties music that I was inspired by had some very nonsensical lyrics. And then, I started to open up and tell this friend of mine about my life and things that I had gone through, and he was like, “Dude, you need to write about that. Stop writing about nonsense. Put your life into this.” When I did that, that’s when things connected in this way that I didn’t expect. And then, traveling and meeting all the people just really solidified that. I really understood the power in music because it was being reflected back at me.

When you had that hit with “Last Resort,” what did success feel like, at that time and with that song? And what’s it like for you to still perform that song, so many years later? Does that song have a different significance for you now?

SHADDIX: That song took us on a rocket ship ride to the top. I went from being this nobody in this small town to, all of a sudden, I’m in Times Square in 1999, counting down as the ball is about to drop. It took me from this nobody to us being on top, and that was a trip for me. To be able to have a song like that in our arsenal, bands work their whole career for a song like that, and we had it right off the rip. I am so grateful to have something like that and to make an impact through music that way. It’s something that I hold near and dear to my heart. To this day, every time we perform it, it just goes off. It pops off and people connect with it. [“Last Resort”] is one of those songs that’s timeless. It still means something, it’s still important, it’s still powerful, it still moves people.

I’m not one of those types to look at our early hits and scoff at it like, “Oh, that was so yesterday.” I’m really stoked for it. I’m grateful for it. At different points in my life, I’ve found different meaning in that song. At one point, back in 2011, I found myself in my own battle. All of a sudden, I was singing that song and thinking, “This song is about me.” That was a dark moment in my life, but I overcame those thoughts and those demons. It’s a heavy one that keeps connecting with people, and for me, I’m so stoked to be able to have that as our song. What I’m grateful for is that we wrote a song and it’s not trash. It’s not one of those songs that just came and went. In L.A., if you turn on KROQ, you’ll hear that song on the radio at some point in the day, every single day, and that means it’s stood the test of time. That’s a badge of honor.

Jacoby Shaddix Says He Always Knew That Papa Roach Would Find Success and Maintain It
Image via Bryson Roatch

When you think about the fact that the band is celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, are you surprised by the fact that you’re still a band, that you’re still making albums, and that you’re still touring? Or were you always so focused on it that you were determined that was going to happen, no matter what?

SHADDIX: I had the grand delusion, as a young kid, that this is what I would be doing for my entire life. Our very first full-length record, that we put out in 1997, we titled “Old Friends from Young Years,” and that was the goal for the band. We wanted to be old friends from young years, and now here we are, 25 years later, still doing it. I just had this grand delusional idea that I was gonna be a rock star and do this until the day I die. We’ve still got more years in us. I’ve still got more to prove. I’ve still got more to say. I feel inspired. I feel like the story is still being told.

What was it that defined success for you, in those early days, and how has success and the idea of artistic and creative fulfillment changed for you?

SHADDIX: Early on, success looked like us getting a record deal. And then, once we got that record deal, we were like, “Okay, now we wanna sell 100,000 records.” We had these realistic goals that we would try to go achieve. And the idea of success to me now, as I look back on our career, I’m living in it. I’m in the success. Some people are like, “Oh, you’re still a band?” And I’m like, “Yeah, we’re still a band. Why did you fall asleep on us, man? Check out this new shit.” I’m not afraid to continually be promoting myself, in that way. From the beginning, I was the dude with the boombox at the Korn show when they came through town, selling Papa Roach CDs for $5 apiece to everybody. Here I stand, 25 years later, and I’ve still got that hustler spirit when it comes to what I do. We left the major label system and we have our own imprint now. We’re doing this ourselves and we’re calling the shots. We’re looking at this thing through a different pair of glasses going, “All right, now we’re the record company.” That’s a new success to us. Being able to make an impact with “Leave a Light On,” not only through commercial success, but through meeting people who feel our music saved their lives, that’s some stuff that I could have never dreamt of, that now I see happening. That trips me out in ways that I never expected.

Papa Roach Frontman Jacoby Shaddix Keeps Things Real by Asking His Kids for Their Opinion About His Songs
Image via Bryson Roatch

When it comes to your own family, and specifically with your kids, what is their taste in music like? What has it been like to explore music with them? You’ve brought your son on stage with you before, but what sort of music do your kids like to listen to?

SHADDIX: My oldest, Makaile, is 24, and he’s really into metal music and hardcore music. Jagger, my second born, is 20, and he loves hip-hop music, metal music, and pop music. And then, my youngest (Brixton) is all over the place. He loves Michael Jackson, Christian music, and Slipknot. I’ve always used my kids as a bit of a barometer. I’ll play them the new music and they’ll be honest. There was a new song that we were contemplating releasing, and they were all like, “Oh, dad, that one’s sick. We like that one. We wanna play that one on repeat.” And then, there was another one I played for my son, Jagger, and he hit me with, “That’s mid.” So, I was like, “All right, cool. I’ll take that.” They’re critical. They know what they like and they’ve got their own taste. I’ll turn them onto music, and they’ll turn me onto music. I enjoy that experience with our boys. It’s pretty cool to be able to have that. And then, when I play my music for my wife, she’s just not a big music person. I think that’s really special about her. She’ll just be like, “Yeah, I like it,” or “That’s not my thing.” She just wants me to take out the trash.

“Rise of the Roach” North American tour kicks off in March 2025. Check out this fun announcement:

Get tickets here