Brad Arnold, 47-year-old co-founder and lead singer of the Mississippi rock band 3 Doors Down, died Saturday, nine months after revealing a kidney cancer diagnosis.
The band announced Arnold's death in a social media post, saying he had “helped redefine mainstream rock music, combining post-grunge accessibility with emotionally direct songwriting.”
In May 2025, Arnold announced that the band would cancel their summer tour because he had late-stage kidney cancer that had spread to his lungs.
“That's not really good,” he said of his diagnosis. “But you know what? We serve a powerful God, and He can overcome anything. So I'm not afraid. I really, honestly, I'm not afraid of Him at all.” And he added: “I would love for you to encourage me in prayer whenever you can.”
He made public his battle against alcoholism. He said he started drinking in his teens, an addiction fueled by the pressure of getting on a tour bus in his 20s.
“It's a lot for a 20-year-old,” he told a Christian podcaster. He thanked religion for his sobriety and dedicated himself to proclaiming his faith on stage.
Born in Escatawpa, Mississippi, in September 1978, Arnold formed the band with his friends Todd Harrell and Matt Roberts in the mid-1990s.
When he was 15, in an algebra class, he wrote the song “Kryptonite,” tapping out the rhythm on his desk.
“I used to be our drummer,” he told the band Candlebox's lead vocalist in an interview. “I only became a singer because we didn't have a singer. That beat came from just sitting at a desk. I probably wrote that song in the time it took me to write it. It really was one of those songs that fell from the sky.”
It became the band's breakout hit in 2000 and earned a Grammy nomination.
“The Better Life,” the first of the band's six albums, sold more than six million copies, and the 2005 album “Seventeen Days” entered the national charts at No. 1. That year, reviewing a performance in Los Angeles, one critic noted Arnold's “drawn accent” and his sleeveless denim shirt, calling him “less punk than Springsteen.”
The band released its latest album, “Us and the Night,” in 2016. The following year, the band played at President Trump's inauguration. Arnold is survived by his wife, Jennifer.
