During a recent visit to our Audacy Sound Space in Detroit, Shinedown's Brent Smith and Zach Myers took time to talk about the evolution of mental health conversations throughout their time in the band, and the importance of talking about your mental health.

"I think now that we live in a space where men feel more comfortable talking and everyone feels more comfortable talking about mental health," Zach says, compared to the past. "That's kind of the goal because when you realize that you have someone to talk to about it and you don't have to internalize these things, you realize that talking to anyone helps."

"Since we started making music, we've had songs about mental health since day one," he adds. "I think that now we see that people are open to that conversation and it's not a taboo thing and you don't have to feel like less of a human to talk to someone else about what's going on in your life and realize that it helps."

"We also just look at mental health as just as important as your physical health," Brent shares. "Once people start talking about it more, you know, it's out there so that we can help heal each other. So sometimes when you're looking at what someone's going through, whether it be you or someone else, you know, the worst thing you can do is be quiet. You got to talk about it."

"I think that seeing our fans know that it's OK to discuss these things means a lot to us and the fact that we could even, if we had a small part in opening that door for them, to feel better about themselves or realizing that they have someone they can talk to, that's. I mean if you can save a life by telling someone it's OK to talk to someone you've done the biggest job in the world that you could ever do."

It’s okay to not be OK. We know the power of talk can save lives. Audacy's 'I’m Listening' aims to share valuable resources for those who need to connect, heal, and share their own stories. To those who are dealing with mental health issues, understand you are not alone. If you or anyone you know is struggling with depression or anxiety, know that someone is always there. Additionally, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 988.

Inside the Hard Rock Artist Lounge at Audacy's 'Stars and Strings,' this year's lineup made space to talk about mental health to support the 'I'm Listening' initiative because talk has the power to save lives.

"I think continuing to have open conversations about mental health is so important because it shows that you're not alone in the things that burden you in your head. You feel like your world is ending because of something's happening and you realize, 'oh my god there's so many people around me that are struggling with depression and anxiety,'" says Dasha. "I go to therapy every week. I have to talk things out a bit, and so sometimes she just listens the whole time, but I yap and then I leave the session. I feel so much better. So having a therapist or a friend or a parent that you can really talk things out with is a very important tool."

Inside the Hard Rock Artist Lounge at Audacy's 'Stars and Strings,' this year's lineup made space to talk about mental health to support the 'I'm Listening' initiative because talk has the power to save lives.

"I think opening that door for your friends and stuff is the best way that you can help people, and I know it's important to me," admits Nate. "For my own mental health, what helps me a ton is, I go to YouTube and I do this guided 5-minute meditation... I do the 5-minute meditation anytime I'm kind of feeling like I need to chill out my nervous system, because typically what I find is it's your nervous system needs a little reset. Everything's just like overly fired up and stuff, so you calm that thing down, that helps a lot. And then, you know, prayer. I think prayer and getting in my Bible and worshiping God, I think helps me a ton too."

Inside the Hard Rock Artist Lounge at Audacy's 'Stars and Strings,' this year's lineup made space to talk about mental health to support the 'I'm Listening' initiative because talk has the power to save lives.

"Everyone's going through the same thing, you know, at once," says Hudson. "Everyone's living life and I feel like even when you're on the road or whether it's college or whether it's missing home, anything that it might be, I feel like it's important for everyone to understand you and know where you're at."

Inside the Hard Rock Artist Lounge at Audacy's 'Stars and Strings,' this year's lineup made space to talk about mental health to support the 'I'm Listening' initiative because talk has the power to save lives.

"I think the more we are open about it, the more people that go through a similar thing can embrace those people that are going through something, whether it's long-term or in the moment and talking about it is the first step," shares HARDY. "My stuff is pretty much all rooted in anxiety. I'm doing tremendously better over the past two years. Number one, if you've never done it and you have any sort of mental health, anything, anxiety, depression, OCD, whatever, go to a therapist and get your stuff worked out because it's very important. And then once you do that, my biggest thing is distraction, in the form of anything at all, listening to music, even like focusing on like your breath, or reading a book."

Inside the Hard Rock Artist Lounge at Audacy's 'Stars and Strings,' this year's lineup made space to talk about mental health to support the 'I'm Listening' initiative because talk has the power to save lives.

"You don't need to be having some existential crisis in your life to need to talk to someone and get something off your chest. I think there's a lot of little things that stack up and add up and end up weighing people down," says Zach. "It's better if people can come to the realization that everybody else [has] got something going on too and you're not some, special case of sorrow or depression or something. We're all going through this and it's better if we can all kind of go through it together."