Adam Gontier says that he is not opposed to the idea of SAINT ASONIA and THREE DAYS GRACE touring together at some point in the future.
The former THREE DAYS GRACE singer made his comments less than a month after he and two members of the band’s current lineup, bassist Brad Walst and his younger brother, vocalist Matt Walst, were inducted into the Norwood District High School Hall Of Honor in Norwood, Ontario.
Asked in a recent interview with The Entertainment Outlet if he had seen Brad and Matt much in the years prior to their Norwood reunion, Adam said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I had seen Brad a few times. We always sort of stayed in touch, on and off. But I hadn’t seen Matt since — I guess it would have been roughly 10 years, since I left the band. Yeah, it was awesome seeing them.
“It was cool,” he continued. “[It’s] a small little town that we grew up in — a town of about 1,500 people — so for them to do that was pretty awesome. And, yeah, it was great to see those guys and hang out a bit. It was a lot of fun.”
As for the possibility of SAINT ASONIA and THREE DAYS GRACE hitting the road together, Adam said: “It would be interesting, wouldn’t it? I mean, I don’t know. Anything’s possible. We’ve all grown up quite a bit over the years 10 years — we’ve all got kids and life changes and people grow up and stuff. So, I mean, maybe. You never know. I’m definitely not gonna say no; there’s always a possibility. And, yeah, it’s definitely nice to be just chatting with those guys and all that sort of stuff.”
Earlier in the month, Gontier was asked in a separate interview with Rock Feed if he would be open to working with THREE DAYS GRACE again now that he appears to be on good terms with his former bandmates, Gontier said: “You know what? Yeah. I mean, for sure. We’ve all grown up. It’s been a while. There’s no hard feelings or anything like that. We’re all in touch now and we talk and text and stuff.
“We haven’t really talked about doing anything — not yet anyway — but I feel like something like that is most likely down the road at some point,” he added.
When interviewer Brian Storm noted that Adam‘s reunion with THREE DAYS GRACE would be a “big” deal, Gontier said, “And it would be a lot of fun.” Storm then reiterated that the reunion would be “very big,” to which Adam said: “Probably would be. You never know, man. We haven’t really talked about it. But, yeah, I guess we’ll see.”
Earlier this month, Brad Walst spoke about reconnecting with <>Gontier at the Norwood District High School event in an interview with Tommy Carroll of the 97.9 WGRD radio station. He said: “It’s funny ’cause the high school’s been calling us for years. And, obviously, we’ve all had kind of different schedules, and Adam‘s been doing his thing and we’ve been doing our thing. And until recently, to be honest, we hadn’t really spoken that much — we’d text and stuff. But Adam‘s moved back to the area, and he’s got a great family and a great wife. And we’ve all kind of been chatting and hanging out. Yeah, I called him and just said, ‘They want the three of us’ — they want Matt, Adam and myself. And everyone agreed, and it was, like, ‘Okay, let’s do this.’ So it was pretty cool to see [our] high school, where you grew up… It’s nice to be acknowledged.”
He continued: “It’s funny, ’cause I texted Adam, ‘You made the Hall Of Fame.’ He’s, like, ‘Yup. Straight-B student.’ [Laughs] But I think just having us together in that room was way more powerful, for sure. So it was a pretty cool feeling.”
On June 30, Gontier took to his Instagram to share a photo and video of the ceremony, and he wrote in an accompanying caption: “About last night… thank you so much to Todd Murray, Jason Lean and everyone at Norwood District High School for inducting myself, Brad and @mattjpwalst thanks into their Hall of Honor. And a HUGE congrats to all of the 2022 NDHS graduates.”
In 1992, Gontier, Brad Walst, Phil Crowe, Neil Sanderson and Joe Grant formed GROUNDSWELL while most of the members were still in high school. That band broke up in 1995, but two years later Gontier, Sanderson and Walst reformed as THREE DAYS GRACE. Gontier left the band in 2013 and was replaced by Matt, the vocalist from another Norwood band, MY DARKEST DAYS.
In a 2007 interview with The Oklahoman, Gontier said that he met some of his first bandmates while they were freshmen at Norwood District High School.
“I ended up hooking up with Brad because we had the same love of music,” Gontier said. “He didn’t play anything at the time. I suggested him getting a bass, and he did.”
Gontier said that Canadian bands, including THE TRAGICALLY HIP and OUR LADY PEACE were early influences, along with the Seattle rock scene, particularly the group SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE.
Gontier initially went into rehab in 2005 in Toronto after admitting an addiction to Oxycontin. The rehab stint influenced some material which would appear on THREE DAYS GRACE‘s “One-X” album, including the songs “Pain” and “Over And Over”.
Gontier left THREE DAYS GRACE in the spring of 2013. At the time, the Canadian rockers cited unspecified “health issues” when his departure was announced. Adam later released a statement explaining he exited THREE DAYS GRACE to pursue new projects, and not to deal with addiction.
SAINT ASONIA, which also features STAIND guitarist/founding member Mike Mushok, released a new EP, “Introvert”, on July 1 via Spinefarm. The quartet is rounded out by Cale Gontier (bass) and Cody Watkins (drums).
THREE DAYS GRACE‘s latest album, “Explosions”, was released on May 6 via RCA Records. The LP’s first single, “So Called Life”, was No. 1 on Mediabase‘s Active Rock chart and Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Songs chart. This was the band’s 17th No. 1 song on the Mediabase chart and 16th No. 1 on the Billboard chart, and tied the internationally acclaimed and multi-platinum certified Canadian band with SHINEDOWN for the artist with most #1’s on the Billboard chart.
This past May, GREAT WHITE announced that it had parted ways with singer Mitch Malloy and had replaced him with Andrew Freeman (LAST IN LINE). Malloy had been in GREAT WHITE for nearly four years, having joined the group in 2018 following the departure of Terry Ilous. Asked in a new interview with Metal Edge if he and his bandmates ever considered the possibility of bringing original GREAT WHITE singer Jack Russell back into the fold before getting Andrew, GREAT WHITE guitarist Mark Kendall said: "No, only because he is not 100%. […]
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