Shinedown Launches Hot Sauce Line

Shinedown has been taking over the airwaves with their hit song, ‘A Symptom of Being Human,’ and now they’ve set their sights on the hot sauce industry. On Thursday, the band announced that they have partnered with Torchbearer Sauces to release “Symptom Chipotle Garlic Sauce” — which is now available to purchase — the first in a planned series of hot sauces inspired by Shinedown.

“We have been provided a wonderful opportunity to create this ‘Symptom’ sauce with our friends at Torchbearer Sauces,” said Shinedown drummer Barry Kerch. “Cultivating this sauce has been a passion project and has been an absolute joy to accomplish together. This is just the beginning of what we want to present to the fans of Shinedown. This debut ‘Symptom’ sauce is to be enjoyed by the masses because this one is just right. This sauce is for all of us.”

“We are beyond excited to be making sauces with such a huge, influential group of accomplished musicians,” added David Lynch from Torchbearer Sauces. “Shinedown’s obvious passion for their craft along with the love for (and from) their fans falls right in line with our own feelings towards what we do. In working with them over the past few months, it’s very apparent that this project is going to be huge and we look forward to pushing ourselves to create the best partnership we can.”

“We’ve been around the block a few times and the professionalism and excitement the band has shown us let’s us know that this relationship will be a great one,” Lynch continued. “This is surely the biggest project we’ve worked on and by far the most enjoyable as they have been nothing but helpful and accessible. It’s an honor for Torchbearer to make hot sauces with Shinedown!”

Recently, PopCulture.com had a chance to chat with Kerch — who already runs his own coffee company, Spartan Brews — who offered his reaction to “A Symptom of Being Human” becoming a massive hit, while also reflecting on how far the band has come in their 20+ years together. “It doesn’t feel like two decades plus has passed,” Kerch said, then joking, “It really doesn’t, aside from maybe my joints hurt a little more than they did when I was 25 years old.” Kerch added, “Right now, this is kind of an off year in a way, even with the success of ‘Symptom.’ We’re writing whatever the next thing is going to be and just doing sporadic summer shows. So I miss it already.”

With their most recent album, Planet Zero, having been out for almost a full two years, it feels like “A Symptom of Being Human” was a time bomb just waiting to go off, as the song hasn’t stopped climbing the charts. “To have a record that… in ‘record world’ two years is an old record,” Kerch said. “But the song really just had this slow calm and I think because people relate to it so much and then having the luck of getting on radio, and now Top 40 really has put it into a whole new audience.”