When a founding frontman returns to their band after a long hiatus, it’s nearly always a one-in, one-out situation—and usually for good reason. Just try to imagine David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar sharing center stage in Van Halen.
So it was an unprecedented move when Adam Gontier returned to Three Days Grace after a 12-year absence, and his replacement, frontman Matt Walst, didn’t leave.
“I don’t think Matt was ever—quote, unquote—filling in for me,” said Gontier of his co-vocalist, who is bassist Brad Walst’s younger brother. “He became the second singer of Three Days Grace, and for 10 years he wrote a lot of music with those guys. I knew Matt when he was, like, seven years old. We were friends before the band took off, so we’ve got a solid foundation that way.”
And it’s been paying off. The Canadian post-grunge band’s single, “Apologies” reached No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. It was also the 19th straight chart-topper for Three Days Grace, just a few hits shy of Shinedown’s current record of 23.
This is, after all, a band that hit the ground running with their 2003 self-titled debut album, which went double-platinum and featured the breakout hit “I Hate Everything About You.” Their triple-platinum follow-up, 2006’s One-X, delivered the hits “Animal I Have Become” and “Never Too Late.” On their current tour, longtime fans can expect to hear it all.
“Onstage, Matt will sing his songs, and I’ll sing harmonies,” Gontier said in a recent interview. “And maybe I’ll sing a bridge or a possible second verse in certain songs. It’s kind of the same with the songs that I wrote and perform with the band. It’s nice to have a break here and there, you know?”
During his time away from Three Days Grace, Gontier’s main music project was the band Saint Asonia. The rock supergroup, which featured Staind guitarist Mike Mushok, released three albums and two EPs. And while that band has been on hold since Gontier’s return to Three Days Grace, he promises they haven’t disbanded.
“We still do have the band,” he said. “We’re obviously on hiatus right now and will be until the Three Days Grace stuff slows down. But it’s a cool creative outlet that I’m able to experiment a little bit more with different things.”
The years that Gontier spent away from Three Days Grace have seen him go through a lot of personal changes.
“I’ve spent a lot of years battling different demons, but as of 2017, I haven’t had those problems,” said Gontier, who has been clean and sober since his first son was born eight-plus years ago. When asked which artists have helped get him through his troubled times, Gontier was quick to answer.
“There were three that did it for me, that I still listen to a lot, and that take me back to certain moments. One is The Tragically Hip, an iconic Canadian band that I saw many times over the years and that just had a massive influence on me. Pearl Jam was another band from the same time.”
Gontier continues: “I’m a massive fan of Jeff Buckley, and always have been,” he said of the late singer-songwriter, who drowned in 1997 at the age of 30. “Lately I’ve been listening a lot to his Grace album. There are so many haunting melodies and lyrics he writes. Like “Dream Brother,” which ends with the lyrics: ‘Asleep in the sand with the ocean washing over.’ Those are the last words on the entire album.”
Three Days Grace fans, meanwhile, have been moved by the song “Never Too Late,” which remains a staple of their live shows and has similar themes as Buckley’s lyrics.
“‘Never Too Late’ is one of those songs that, fortunately, has stuck with so many people over the years and helped a lot of people through tough times in their lives,” said Gontier. “And for me, it’s taken on a different meaning as life goes on. The meaning of it back when it was first written, it was about suicide, basically, and how it’s never too late to change the situation you’re in. And now it takes on a different meaning. It’s not so much about suicide for me anymore, as it is about just living life and being happy and being present.”
*Three Days Grace perform at the SAP Center on Nov. 18.
Editor’s Note:
Former Metro Santa Cruz editor Bill Forman has been a regular contributor to Metro Silicon Valley since 2023 and wrote this piece before the start of Three Days Grace’s current tour. Bill passed in July. He was a veteran music writer who was also music editor of Good Times Santa Cruz, music and film editor of the Colorado Springs Indy and editor of Tower Pulse Magazine. —David Ma
