Smith moved to Jacksonville, Florida and began work on the project in 2001.
Atlantic signed Smith to a development deal where record representatives helped him with his song writing ability, and helped him recruit members for a new band, which would become Shinedown. The record label, unhappy with Dreve as a whole, dropped the band prior to releasing an album, but retained Smith, who they felt was worth developing separately as an artist.
The band's origins trace back to frontman Brent Smith's prior band, Dreve, which had signed a record deal with Atlantic Records in 2000. History 2000–2004: Formation and Leave a Whisper
Additionally, on June 3, 2021, Shinedown was ranked #1 by Billboard on the Greatest of All Time Mainstreams Rock Artists chart released to celebrate the Mainstream Rock Chart's 40th Anniversary. Shinedown has the most number one singles on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts with 18, and all of their released singles have reached the top 5 on the chart. The group has released seven studio albums: Leave a Whisper (2003), Us and Them (2005), The Sound of Madness (2008), Amaryllis (2012), Threat to Survival (2015), Attention Attention (2018), and Planet Zero (2022). Consistent for the first two album cycles, a few lineup changes followed in the late 2000s, eventually stabilizing with Smith and Kerch alongside Zach Myers on guitar and Eric Bass on bass. Smith, still under contract with record label Atlantic Records, recruited the band's original lineup of Jasin Todd as guitarist, Brad Stewart on bass, and Barry Kerch on drums. It all just sort of fell into place.Shinedown is an American rock band from Jacksonville, Florida, formed by singer Brent Smith in 2001 after the dissolution of Dreve, his previous band. It was the right place, right time, right sound. I hear bits and pieces of “Call Me” in other people’s songs even today, not direct copies of it, but similarities. We embraced the punk attitude - we were happy but belligerent at the same time. We didn’t expect it, but it legitimized us in this country and made people realize that we were adventurous and had a vision that could transcend the styles of the day. 1 was a complete amplification of everything we had achieved outside of the United States. You know that palette of color throughout the film, those beautiful greys, blues and browns, it was so beautifully done. Later I found out from Giorgio that the film was fashion designer Armani’s big break as well. After we saw the rough cut, we were walking across 59th Street at the bottom of Central Park and the visuals were fresh in my mind. He had so many hits by then, but this one was important for him, being in the film industry as well. They were giving out a lot of gold 45s and LPs at that time, and I remember speaking with Giorgio who was very enthusiastic and jumping for joy. I was doing a lot of promo, going out to radio stations, and we did a lot of appearances and performances of that song, which was really exciting and fabulous.