Rockers Collective Soul to 'Shine' at Peace Center: Upstate Beat

There are plenty of rock bands that started out in the 1990s and, well, stayed there. Then there are those bands that survive and thrive long after their multi-platinum heyday.

Say hello to Atlanta, Georgia’s Collective Soul, who are firmly in the latter category. Led by singer/songwriter/guitarist Ed Roland, the band was tight, melodic and, crucially, a down-the-line rock band in the age of grunge.

Collective Soul first hit in the early ‘90s with a definitive hit called “Shine” (“Heaven let your light shine down”) and followed that up with six more gold or platinum albums and hits like “December,” “The World I Know,” “Gel,” “Precious Declaration,” “Where The River Flows,” “Run” and many more.

Those are just some of the hits that drove Collective Soul’s worldwide album sales to 15 million copies and hundreds of millions of streams.

And those are just some of the songs the band will play during its Peace Concert Hall show in Greenville on April 28.

Bassist Will Turpin, who has been with the band since 1993, said in a recent interview that the band has been around long enough to see a multi-generational audience in front of it at every show.

“Sometimes, we’ll see three generations of one family all at our show,” Turpin told me. “We’ve got the fans of the ‘90s rock bands that can actually throw down that classic rock. And their kids want to see it, and the 20-somethings want to see it because their parents raised them on it.

“We’ve got 60-year-olds generation and 7-year-olds at our rock shows, man,” he added. “And that’s where you want to be. You want to be in a spot where you’re not limited to a certain audience.”

Of course, having big hits isn’t always enough to sustain a band over 35 years, which is how long Collective Soul has been doing this. That’s where a killer live show comes in.

“It’s just having pride in what you do as a musician and then finding that chemistry,” Turpin said of the band’s live show. “But at the end of the day, it boils down to emotion. Can you grab that emotion out of the song and transfer it to another human through musicianship?”

It also helps when the band is having blast onstage, pumping out the melodic, anthemic rock that made them go multi-platinum.

“We try to have a good time too,” Turpin said, “because if we’re not relaxed and having a good time, is going to be hard for us to truly create the best music.”