Hoobastank refused to partner with Rihanna and the reason is surprising

In the mid-2000s, the Hoobastank was a band on the rise, following the hit “The Reason”, released in 2003. Rihannain turn, was still a promising teenager in music and had just signed a contract with the label def jam.

The paths of the band and the singer crossed at that moment. As revealed by the group members, the islandrecord label linked to def jam at the time, he offered the artist to participate in one of his songs. She even registered the collaboration, but the members did not use it.

The track in question is “Inside of You”, one of the singles from Every Man for Himselfthird studio album by Hoobastank. Released in 2006, the album was surrounded by expectations, as it would succeed The Reasonwork from 2003 that featured the previously mentioned hit.

through the twitterthe vocalist of the group, Doug Robbtold the story:

“True story. There is a version of a song by Hoobastank with Rihanna when she was a ‘younger’ artist. In total shortsightedness, we didn’t use that version of the song for the album. We also don’t thinkThe Reason’ was a song to come out as a single, then… oops.”

True story. There is a version of a @Hoobastank song featuring @Rihanna when she was a “newer” artist. Displaying a total lack of foresight, we didn’t use that version of the song for the album. We also didn’t think The Reason was a single though either so…🤦🏻Oops 🤷🏻 pic.twitter.com/NjIAj4IMGM

—Doug Robb (@HoobaDoug) February 14, 2023

In a statement sent to the website Consequence, Robb offered more details. The musician said the label approached the band because they wanted to “feature a ‘new artist’ on one of the songs” from Every Man for Himself. They did not refuse to give it a chance.

“This kind of thing happens all the time. We said, ‘Sure, who do you have in mind?’ It was Rihanna. I had never heard of her and I don’t think anyone in the band had. We gave her a song called ‘Inside of You‘. I think they rearranged part of the song to create a pre-chorus section, which wasn’t originally part of the arrangement, for her to sing a little part.”

The version with Rihanna has not been used. Apparently, however, it was not due to any problem in the singer’s performance, but with this new part created just so that she could participate.

“We heard it and we didn’t really love it, so we didn’t use it. That simple. I think we had already gotten used to hearing the song as it was composed, so it felt weird to us.”

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Rihanna and Hoobastank

Also in his communiqué, Doug Robb said that the unnatural situation prevented the collaboration from being maintained on the album Hoobastank. “I think if we had done a proper collaboration with her, writing the song knowing there was going to be another artist on it and making room for her, it probably would have been different and we would have used it,” he said.

“I think the way we did it was wrong. The ink was dry, so to speak. Well, that was it, yet another staggering lack of foresight that didn’t allow us to anticipate the star that Rihanna would become. We’ve met her at several awards shows since. and she was always really sweet and super nice, I think it all worked out for her in the end. [Risos]”

It is not possible to know exactly in what time frame the collaboration attempt took place. Every Man for Himself was released by Hoobastank in May 2006 and did not repeat the success of the previous work. The material may have been recorded in 2005, when Rihanna had already released his first album, Music of the Sunand the hit “Point de Replay” in the second position of the American charts.

Fact is that Rihanna became one of the greatest artists of the 21st century. To date, she has sold more than 250 million records, being the second woman with the best sales in the history of music, behind only Madonna. O Hoobastank failed to recover the success of the early 2000s, not even with subsequent works Every Man for Himself.