The members of Shinedown are hardcore. They wear black, have dread locks and are frequently pictured giving the middle finger. The band has a grassroots metallic sound and a kick-ass attitude.

What isn’t displayed through their photographs and crazy tour stunts is the intelligent, cordial and level-headed side of Shinedown. Some of them even have families and kids.

Shinedown, a four-man rock band from Jacksonville, Fla., includes a drummer with an anthropology degree, a background in chemistry and former job as a biologist and a bassist who used to be a chemist specializing in quality control for Bacardi Rum.

Brent Smith, lead singer; Jasin Todd, lead guitarist; Brad Stewart, bassist; and Barry Kerch, drummer all sport a ’90s grunge look — Kerch and Stewart top it off with a tandem of dreadlocks.

The band hit the ground running in 2001 when Smith put together an array of local Floridian artists.

“Man, it just clicked – we have been a family ever since,” Kerch said laughing. “Dysfunctional but still a family.”

According to Kerch, he was the seventh drummer to try out for the newly formed band after Stewart, who did some work with Puddle of Mudd, and Todd, a local guitarist, were picked up by Smith after a failed project with Atlantic Records.

“Brent had a previous relationship with Atlantic. He was signed with them when he was younger with another band but they never released anything – they kinda got shelled,” Kerch said. “He already knew the guys there, so once he got a project together it was easy to get in. We got lucky — it is all about luck.”

Each member plays a separate role, and Kerch is the “dad.”

“I am kinda the dad — serious guy for the most part. Brent is serious in a business sort of way; Brad is more of the joker kinda guy; and Jasin is just Jasin, man,” he said. “He is like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde – he’s got an alter ego known as Strykyr. When the Strykyr is on, it gets dangerous.”

He said Todd morphs into his alter ego on stage under certain conditions.

“Sometimes he is the Strykyr on stage ; it depends on how much alcohol we feed him,” he said.

Although Shinedown has been on the road for the majority of its tenure, it continues to do numerous shows and tours every year.

“We will do a tour and take a week and then do another tour,” Kerch said. “We love it — wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Being on the road has become an integral part of Shinedown’s success even though touring can be tough while having a family.

Everyone in the band is married excluding Smith. Stewart and Todd both have kids, according to Kerch.

“It’s tough man – it’s tough. You miss your families, but you gotta do what you gotta do, and this is my career,” he said. “[The band] either flies home on a day off sometimes or [our families] come out for a few days.”

The members of Shinedown prop up their feet to watch movies to alleviate some of the pressure and tireless work of being on the road.

“We watch a lot of movies. You have your classics like Goodfellas and s— like that,” Kerch said. “We watch Anchorman to go to sleep — we can quote the whole damn movie.”

He said they stop every few weeks at the local Best Buy or Wal-Mart and load up on the latest DVDs — just one of their outlets to lighten up the stress from traveling. The members also play practical jokes on each other.

“Today, Zach, [the touring backup guitarist] was upstairs taking a shower, and somebody ran off with his clothes and his cell phone. He’s just now got his clothes back, so its been an hour that he has been walking around in a towel,” Kerch said.

Aside from the jokes and movies, the band’s primary focus is touring. Kerch said the road has its ups and downs. He said the worst part about being on tour, beside being away from family, is finding clean amenities.

“Finding a clean sh—er – that is the ultimate worst. You can’t s— on the bus. You know that’s against the rules,” Kerch said. “Finding the clean ones, that’s priceless – that’s gold. Other than that, touring is great.”

The best part of being on the road, he said, is being on stage.

“It is better than any drug,” Kerch said.

With its influences including bands such as Lynard Skynard, Led Zepplin and AC/DC — Shinedown looks to the past for its inspiration and to its future for continued success in music and tours.

The band has high hopes for future tours, its dream tour includes the Foo Fighters and Audioslave.

Kerch said the band’s favorite tour thus far included a stint with Van Halen, which the band is fond of. They didn’t even seem to mind Eddie Van Halen’s practical jokes.

“Eddie Van Halen pissed in our deli tray,” Kerch said laughing.

Shinedown has it’s way of doing things, including coming up with a band name. Their name came about in a rather inconspicuous matter.

“There was a painting in Brad’s house that a friend of ours painted, and we were looking for the names and couldn’t come up with one -couldn’t come up with one – and Brent one day said, ‘hey man, it would look cool if you had a light shining down on that painting,'” Kerch said. “So it got shortened to Shinedown, but it really kinda fits the band. It is kinda the ying and yang of life. You know, sometimes you’re up and sometimes you are down.”

Shinedown has produced a handful of chart toppers over its relatively short tenure including its first single, ’45.’

MTV banned the video because the band wouldn’t change its chorus.

“They didn’t want to say ‘staring down the barrel of a 45’ on MTV. You know, they wanted to censor us, so we said ‘f— off,'” he said. “We don’t have time for that. If you can show a Jay-Z video where he is getting shot, but you can’t say ‘staring down the barrel of a 45’ — I think that’s full of s—. I think that what it was was that they didn’t want to play us.”

He said the message of ’45’ shouldn’t be misconstrued.

“Songs like ’45’ and things like that — we are coming from a dark place, but it has a positive meaning,” he said. “That’s cool, but I respect honesty, and nobody in this business is honest.”

Shinedown has no problem with being an MTV regular and reaching a much broader audience, but they have no intentions of succumbing to conformity.

“Would we love to be an MTV darling? I mean yeah, but I’m not gonna look like Fall Out Boy to do it,” he said. “I am not gonna cut my hair and put on a suit. I am rock and roll, and that’s what we do and that is how I am gonna look.”

As far as its other songs are concerned, the band doesn’t have a favorite.

“They are all like your children. It is hard to choose. Whichever one is the current single is a good one,” Kerch said. “You put your heart and soul into everything, so it is really hard to choose.”

With its eyes on the future, Shinedown is intent on continuing its rapid growth.

“[We want to] continue our success, keep growin’, tour the world and see everything and keep selling records. That’s the dream for anybody,” Kerch said. “You hope that someday you can become an AC/DC or an Aerosmith — just have one hell of a career and one hell of a ride.”