Welcome Home, Brad Arnold - Soapbox Jr.

Y'all will have to excuse me, I just got punched in the gut today. 3 Doors Down co-founder and front man, Brad Arnold went home to be with the Lord today (2/7/2026) after being diagnosed with cancer early last year.

This is extremely hard for multiple reasons. For one, he was only 47 and still had a lot of life left in him, a life that was a gift, because ten years ago, he was headed down a road that could have taken him years ago. 

He was out of control, and the excesses that fame can bring were destroying him. Everyone around him saw it, except Brad.<

At a particularly low point while touring in Japan, he decided to reach out to one of his heroes. It turns out one of his heroes was mine too, my Dad.

Dad listened to Brad, thought about it carefully and asked him if he loved his wife, he said he did. Did he love what he did for a living, he said that he did. Did he love his life, he said that he did. So, Dad told him the same thing everyone in his inner circle who loved him did...

He needed to get help.

I interviewed Brad for the Charlie Daniels Podcasts back in 2021. The way I tried to put it forth to him was that when one of his heroes tells him the same thing that everyone else who loved him does, then maybe there's something to it after all.

When he got back to the states, he checked himself into rehab, and finally achieved sobriety and a new outlook on life. While already a Christian, it was not uncommon - at least in the past few years - for Brad to tell the multitude of fans who came to see 3DD about the power of Jesus and what He did in his life.

While the true credit lies with Him, he also gave credit to Dad for sending him down that road to getting clean.

Last month, Brad celebrated ten years of sobriety. I sent him a text and I have put up a photo of him and Dad each of the past few years once we talked about it on the podcast. I never heard back from him, and there was no official post from his Instagram page, which was the only social media account he personally had.

I should have known that was a bad sign.

My heart breaks for his widow, Jennifer, and his family, and the millions of 3DD fans who are heartbroken, including me and my wife Chelsea.<

We got to hang out with Brad after a show in Nashville a couple of years ago. He had settled in Murfreesboro, TN a few years before and when we saw him, he was a happy, enthusiastic warm and caring guy, one who was blessed to have a second chance at life, and make the most of it.<

While the circumstances were different, Dad had a similar experience. Dad had a stroke in Colorado in 2010 and miraculously survived and even had one of the most eventful decades of his life until he went home in 2020.

Heaven is a place of eternal glorious love and light, it's also a place of reunions, and I know that a young man from Escatawpa, MS just got to see an old friend of his, a fellow transplanted Tennessean, a chubby fiddle player originally from Wilmington, NC. There are no tears in heaven, but a joyous reunion it is.

We love you, and we miss you, Brad. Please give that fiddle player a big, big hug and tell him how much we love and miss him too.<

Welcome home, Brad.

If you want to hear my interview with Brad, check out episodes 11 and 12 of The Charlie Daniels Podcast here: https://www.charliedaniels.com/podcast

What do you think?

Let’s all make the day count!

Pray for our troops, our police, the Peace of Jerusalem and our nation.

God Bless America!

#SonyReleaseHonkyTonkAve

#BenghaziAintGoingAway #End22

- Charlie Daniels, Jr.

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Check Out The Charlie Daniels Podcast!

Check out "Geechi Geechi Ya Ya Blues" from Beau Weevils - 'Songs in the Key of E'

 

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