Lewis continues to break through Staind's glass window

Aaron Lewis is playing alone again these days. But fans of his pop-metal act, Staind, have long stopped worrying about the band's impending break-up. They've had plenty of time to get accustomed to this kind of behavior. For nearly a decade, the lead singer of the fifteen-million-album-selling, Grammy-nominated outfit has made the time to hit the road on his own.

"It's kind of becoming a tradition," Lewis said from a recent tour stop in Reno, NV. "And hopefully, soon enough, there'll be a record to tour and it'll become even more than a tradition. But I don't think it's ever going to turn into a full-blown solo project. I think it'll always be in the vein of someone like James Taylor. I just can't see it becoming a whole other band or anything like that."

Even if his solo career did expand into a regular working project, it's doubtful that the other members of the Massachusetts quartet would mind. Over the years, Staind has kept to a very rigorous touring schedule. Lewis' solo stops have given the other members a chance to take a break and spend some much needed time with their families. But more than that, Lewis says that this has been the plan from the very beginning.

"This goes all the way back," he said, "to a conversation that Fred (Durst) from Limp Bizkit and I had before we ever went to Los Angeles and signed a record deal. It was always talked about from the word 'go' that I would have a solo career as well. I consider myself very lucky."

That's putting it mildly. Staind went from playing Tool and Alice In Chains covers in Northeastern bars to world tours, No. 1 hits, and platinum albums almost overnight. They've managed to stay successful even as the popularity of hard rock has waxed and waned, while Lewis' solo career has only served to bolster band camaraderie and popularity. And Lewis has done it all after coming from a family of seriously modest means.

"I grew up in a 50s trailer park," he said. "Every trailer in the place was at least that old. And when we moved out, we moved into a hunting camp that my dad had bought in the 60s and eventually built into a house. It was on the side of a mountain and there was nobody anywhere. We were the only ones on a two-and-a-half-mile-long logging road that led up to it. That was my upbringing."

Recently, Lewis' solo endeavors have also ---- for the first time ever ---- provided an avenue by which the singer can recall those personal memories in a new and literal way. While Lewis says he always tries to be honest and heartfelt when writing lyrics to the music, his new song 'Country Boy' is a page taken directly from his life.

"The song's first lines are 'I grew up on an old dirt road / In a town you wouldn't know,'" he said. "That's a straight-up autobiographical story. And it's not that everything else hasn't been derived from experiences in my life, but they've been feelings, not a story. That's just this song."

And the solo tours have provided the singer with plenty of other positive experiences as well.

"The acoustic thing really gives the lyrics an opportunity to shine," Lewis said. "That's really what's so cool about it for me. It's silent. People actually yell at those who are talking during the set, so it's very intimate. You can hear a pin drop 99 percent of the time. It's great."

But Staind fans need not worry. After a few more weeks of solo performances, including a stop at Pechanga on Friday, the band should be getting back together in early spring.

"Right now, they're taking a very much-deserved break," he said. "And they needed it. Unfortunately, break time is my opportunity. But hopefully, all of my hard work will pay off."