“When you talk about just knowledge of music and of instrumentation, he is a literal genius”: Shinedown frontman Brent Smith on what makes Rick Beato a great producer

Brent Smith [left] performs in a blazer and white T-shirt as flames from pyro light the stage behind him. On the right, Rick Beato is photographed in a denim overshirt at NAMM 2022.

Now that Rick Beato has become the face of music YouTube, with over five million and counting subscribers to his main channel, it is sometimes easy to forget that he is a producer by trade. Brent Smith hasn’t. But then the Shinedown frontman and Beato go way back.

Beato was one of three producers whom the Jacksonville, Florida rock band worked with on their 2003 debut album, Leave A Whisper, and shared writing credits with Smith on tracks such as Lost In A Crowd, In Memory and Stranger Inside.