I recently sat down and enjoyed a one-on-one conversation with Chris Henderson of 3 Doors Down at RCA Studios in Nashville. He will be among the four band members featured in our upcoming documentary series, Unbreakable, featuring Chet Roberts, which will be released later this summer. In the two episodes you’ll also hear from all 4 remaining members of the band.
We discussed a wide variety of topics. Here are just five of the many questions I asked Chris, along with his raw, honest responses.
GREG: Tell me about your business, MTR Defense.
CHRIS:
“It’s a lifestyle brand company. It started as a gun company, and I was building guns. I was in the Navy for eight years or something like that, in the Army for two, so I got a little bit of experience — not enough to be dangerous, but enough to know how to build them and maintain them.
So, I started building guns, then sold a few of those and enjoyed that work.
But then people were like, ‘Hey, you can have T-shirts, you can have hats.’ And I was like, ‘Well, no, but I can get them probably.’ So, I started trying to get hats made, get T-shirts made. And I figured out real quick how bad that business is. They want you to buy 500, 600 of this, and they don’t want to talk to you unless you buy this much money worth of stuff. And then a lot of the workmanship is crappy, and they really don’t care.
So, I was getting thrown to the wolves like that. So I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to make my own.’ Then I switched over to making apparel, and that turned into MTR Custom Co. And that’s my business in a nutshell.
Some of my customers are 1029 The Buzz here in Nashville. I got the radio station, I do a lot of bands, a lot of local bands. ’Cuz I don’t have any minimums, because bands don’t want to pay for 4,000 shirts. So, I’ll do five, I’ll do 100, I’ll do 20 — whatever.
And we do all the designs in-house — stickers, all that good stuff. We do everything. So, we can pretty much facilitate a whole band’s tour, and also drop ship if they don’t want to keep inventory. We just keep blanks, and then we just make things as they sell.”
(Note: Shameless plug: When you purchase swag from 4th Door Media, you are supporting Chris as well. He is the master printer behind all 4th Door designs including the one you see below.)
GREG: When did you know you were going to be a musician?
CHRIS:
“I knew I was going to be a musician when I was born, basically — or at least I thought so — from day one. But then, around 12 or 13 years old, I got shipped off from my mom to my dad. And my dad was a whole different set of rules, and music wasn’t a thing there. Musical instruments weren’t a part of that. Really conservative, kind of religious. There was no music, no dancing, none of that stuff.
So, it wasn’t like I was a musician during my high school years. I just played football — you know, played the hell out of that. And then I joined the Navy the day I graduated high school, pretty much, and picked up the guitar that same day. I started rediscovering music again because I had this big gap.
So, it’s embarrassing sometimes. People will be like, ‘Hey man, you ever heard this band?’ And I’m like, ‘Nah, man, I missed that. Sorry.’ So now I’m just rediscovering stuff like that.”
GREG: Tell me about your roots, where you are from, and how you met Brad Arnold.
CHRIS:
“I’m from the town that we’re from — the band’s from — it’s called Escatawpa, and it’s not very many people. There are about 1,800 on Sunday, and then during the week, less than that, because all the churches are in Escatawpa, so the people scoot out. But if you’re in a band, you’re that band.
I started playing guitar heavy when I was 18. Went in the Navy, did my first four years of that, practiced every day, got out of the Navy and went to work in town. But my first band was called The Union, and I just joined that band. That was the band.
And then, when that band broke up, Three Doors Down — because Brad and them were kids — that became the next thing. Like I said, if you’re in a band, you’re in that band. And I was one of the only guitar players in town, and we were all friends. I don’t remember meeting them. I just remember knowing them.
I’m an opportunistic guy. I’m ready when the opportunity arises, and I’m not afraid to take it. And, you know, if somebody says, ‘Let’s play on Sunday at 7 a.m.,’ I’m gonna be there. No matter what happens, it may not be a good thing, may be a great thing — you don’t know till you get there. So that’s the way I’ve always done it.”
GREG: Do you have a fondest memory from being out on the road?
CHRIS:
“Probably some of my fondest memories are not really shows and things like that, but the places you get to go, the people you get to meet, and the situations you find yourself in. In a touring rock band, you’re not really going to be at the local church on Sunday, you know what I’m saying? You’re going to the local bar on Friday. So, you get to meet some colorful folks and just experience a little bit of everything.
I’ve probably ordered drinks in 17 languages, you know, that kind of thing — find a cab, find a train. So, you get some real, on-the-ground world experience that no one else is going to get. You know, going on vacation, you don’t get that. So, I got a lot of that.
I always like to say, one day I’ll be sitting on the porch, and I’ll go, ‘Haha...’ and whoever’s sitting beside me will go, ‘What?’ And I’ll go, ‘Nothing.’ You know, it’s all in there, man.
But there are some really, really great memories — mainly just the travel, seeing different countries, seeing different cultures, what they eat, how they talk, why they say what they say, you know.
I think probably one of the first shows that Justin Biltonen ever played with us was in Russia. We played in Moscow, and the kids would sit down for the verses and then jump up for the choruses. And that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.
Every country’s got a different kind of vibe — what they do for songs, you know. Like in Scandinavia — actually, Finland — they make this note in between songs while you’re standing there. And you pick up those kinds of memories. And the food, man, you know — just the people.”
GREG: Being in a band can be a true brotherhood. Tell me about life on the road with your brothers and how often you truly spend time with them.
CHRIS:
“When you spend that much time with people, you end up spending more time with the people in your band than you do your children, your wives, your cousins, your mothers, your fathers. These are the people that you spend time with on this planet. That’s a big deal, no matter what.
So, if you can’t be brothers — if it can just be friends or business partners — it’s not going to work. You gotta be a family, because it’s okay to hate your family. It just is. Because you’re still gonna love them at the end of the day. No matter what they say, no matter what they do, you’re always gonna come back around.
It’s like a high school fight — you get bumped in the nose, and five minutes later you’re friends again, right? If you can’t be that person, you can’t be in a band with that person. That’s the way it is.
So, you have to know from the beginning that you’re gonna dedicate yourself to that, and you have to be that coming in. You can’t learn that.”
GREG: Since the band has not gotten back together, do you still feel the brotherhood?
CHRIS:
“I do. What you got to understand is, when you get in that little tube and fly all over the world and drive all over the country — you get really close. And then, when you leave that little tube, you have to separate. You have to go about your business. You have to go back to your family and get away from them. So, you maintain minimal contact. That’s the way it is.
But then, when you see them again, you’re best friends, right? So, it’s like military friends. You don’t see them for 20 or 30 years, but you did some shit with them. So, when you get back with them, you pick up where you left off. That’s the band relationship.”
I hope you enjoyed the awesome back and forth between Chris and me. I sure as heck did. I’ll be sharing more from Chris and the rest of the remaining members of 3 Doors Down as we lead up to the premiere of Unbreakable featuring Chet Roberts. If you’d like to order apparel from Chris, here’s his website:
https://mtrdefense.com/
Thank you for your support!
Can’t wait for the show. Thanks for sharing yourself Chris!
How can I get a fourth door media t shirt???