Third Day and Brad Avery part ways
It looks like 13 years of awesomeness is about to take a sharp turn. Brad Avery, lead guitarist of Third Day, is parting ways with the band. From the official Third Day blog:
Third Day and Brad Avery have made the very difficult decision to part ways.
We appreciate Brad’s many contributions to the band’s career to date, including his work on our forthcoming album, but the time has come for us to follow our separate paths.
He has been an important part of Third Day for the last 13 years as we’ve traveled the world together and performed over 1,000 concerts. We will miss him as a band member but he will always remain our brother and our friend. Brad is a wonderful person, gifted songwriter and talented musician. We trust that God has amazing plans for his future.
I have been a huge Third Day fan since 1994 or so, and Brad has been a big part of that. He brought the rock to the band. If you ever saw them in concert, you would always remember the funny faces he made while shredding on a solo. I know Third Day will go on to make awesome music just like they have for the last 15 years or so, but this is still a pretty big blow.
We’ll miss you, buddy!
Here is a picture from WAY back in the day. Brad is on the far right. (click for larger image)
I still can’t believe that he left. I’m seeing them tomorrow night so it will be interesting to see what it’s like without him. I’m sure it’ll still rock as always – just a little less without those faces he made.
I am interested in how the show went without him. Mark probably had his hands full with all the guitar parts!
Yeah, Mark seemed pretty concentrated the whole night and focused. The band still sounded great and their new material is awesome and I mean really awesome! I was surprised at how much it still rocked with Brad not there. The stage is setup differently now – Mark is where Brad was, Tai is where Mark used to be. This sounds weird, but probably one of the best Third Day shows I’ve seen – very energetic – they brought the rock.