Theory of a Deadman found their groove on their 2008 release ‘Scars & Souvenirs.’ The album sparked nine singles and became their most successful album to date. Wanting to build on that momentum, the band released their follow up ‘The Truth Is..’ in July of this year and it debuted in the No. 8 spot on the Billboard 200 chart, surpassing all expectations.

On ‘The Truth Is…,’ Theory of a Deadman mastered the art of combining tongue-in-cheek anthems with explosive power ballads drawing a definitive line right down the middle between love and hate. The sound follows in the vein of ‘Scars & Souvenirs’ and builds upon it, providing some special moments like the military inspired ‘We Were Men’ and the rock ‘n’ roll love story of ‘Easy to Love You.’ For those looking for signature Theory of a Deadman look no further than the infectious chorus of ‘Lowlife’ or their ode to the ex-girlfriend in ‘Bitch Came Back.’

The band is currently on the road with 3 Doors Down and Pop Evil, and we recently caught up with Theory of a Deadman frontman Tyler Connolly. In addition to defending ‘Bitch Came Back,’ Connolly discussed ‘The Truth Is…’ and everything else going on in the world of Theory of a Deadman.

You’ve said that you’ve finally found your place in rock ‘n’ roll and that in the past you struggled, not within the industry but within yourselves; what did you mean by that?

Well, I think when we started out, we never saw this as a business, and we literally were these four kids that jammed in my basement. We didn’t play a lot of live shows, we enjoyed riffs and cranking our amps up but beyond that we really had no idea what we were doing. We went out on the road, we toured, the label almost killed us, but we really didn’t know what we wanted to do. If someone had asked us what we wanted out of our careers, we probably would have responded, “I don’t know.”

I think it really took us some time before we actually figured it out. By the time we got to the third record, we became more confident, we were able to start creating songs that made sense for us and for our band, it clicked and it all came together. We were really happy with the record and I think our fans were, and I think that’s probably why.

‘The Truth Is…’ as a whole was influenced a lot by your recent divorce. Now that you’ve let it all out there through the music, has it been therapeutic, and is it a challenge for you to sing the songs every night?

It was definitely therapeutic — for sure. I feel a lot better now; I was right in the midst of serious turmoil. There wasn’t a lot of anger, I think it was more or less just the feeling of what was I going to do with the rest of my life just because you can’t just have your job, you can’t just have music, you have to be able to go home to something. You have to be able to call someone to tell them how great the show was or how you won an award — you have to have somebody in your life. I think at that point, when we were writing the new record, I didn’t have that. And so, I was just in this rotten place and topics just came out. I guess I feel a little bad about it at this point but unfortunately it’s out there now and now it’s the people’s songs. It’s theirs to have, it’s not mine anymore.

For more of this interview, visit our brothers over at Loudwire.com

More From Classic Rock 105.1