3 Doors Down Bassist Todd Harrell Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

Former 3 Doors Down bass player Todd Harrell is heading to jail, according to a report by TMZ.

Harrell was the founding bass player of 3 Doors Down, a staple of late 1990s – early 2000s alternative rock. Harrell was sentenced to ten years in a Mississippi state prison for possession of a firearm by a felon on Thursday. His sentence was handed down by Jackson County Judge Robert Krebs. Harrell was already stuck with a lifelong felon status after he was convicted of vehicular homicide in 2013.

This latest sentence goes back to June, when police were called to Harrell’s house for a domestic violence incident involving his wife. There, responding officers saw guns and drugs sitting out in plain sight, giving them reasonable cause to get a search warrant for the residence. Ultimately, this led to Harrell’s arrest, as he was barred from owning a gun, even a legally registered one.

Harrell has already spent time in jail over his arrest several years ago. His vehicular homicide story goes back to April of 2013, when he was reportedly driving on I-40 in Nashville, Tennessee, under the influence of prescription medication. He was going at a high speed when he hit 47-year-old Paul Howard Shoulders, Jr. The man was killed, and Harrell was placed on house arrest while he awaited trial.

Meanwhile, Harrell’s doctor was called into question as well, as he had been apparently over-prescribing pain medication to the musician. Harrell was given hundreds of pills within a month, and he apparently continued to get them when he was caught trying to smuggle some into jail with him.

At that time, Harrell’s attorneys postponed his trial for years, until December of 2015. Finally, he went to jail for two years. He was also sentenced to six years of probation, which he was presumably still serving at the time of this most recent arrest.

During this time, Harrell was permanently dismissed from 3 Doors Down. Justin Biltonen, who had played with The Campaign 1984 before, was brought in as his permanent replacement.

Last year, 3 Doors Down caught a lot of flack when they agreed to play the inauguration of President Donald Trump, where many others in the entertainment industry refused. At the time, it was headline news that most top-tier performers in the U.S. had declined to take part in the auspicious occasion, but when the request finally came down to 3 Doors Down, they went for it.

“Well, 3 Doors actually played George W. Bush’s inauguration,” their manager told Vice at the time. “They are good Mississippi and Alabama boys—they come from conservative families. You know, they’re really good guys, but they have very different political beliefs. Because they played both Bush inaugurations, they’ve obviously been on the conservative radar.”

The manager may have also hinted at the band’s enthusiasm for firearms, which years later has gotten Harrell back behind bars.

“3 Doors have that God, guns, and country black-and-white sort of viewpoint, and they spend a lot of time going to Iraq, doing service, playing for the troops. They believe it and that’s just the way they see America. It’s pretty hard to argue with,” he said.