3 Doors Down [ tickets ]'s Brad Arnold never felt more insecure than the day he and his band played on the USS George Washington off the coast of Portugal.

"It was in port, but it was still out a ways," Arnold told LiveDaily. "We had to take a boat out to it. At the time, I was 22 years old. I was like, 'Man, they're all going to look at me like I'm a kid.' I got on the boat and I was older than 90 percent of the people on the boat. The captain said the average age on that ship was 19. By the time they came home, it was 20."

3 Doors Down [ tickets ]--which also includes guitarists Matt Roberts and Chris Henderson, bassist Todd Harrell and drummer Greg Upchurch--have been avid supporters of the troops overseas. The group has played numerous concerts for the soldiers and, in 2007, wrote the song "Citizen Soldier" for a major promotional campaign for the National Guard. The "Citizen Soldier" video played before the previews at many movie theaters nationwide in the last year.

"Citizen Soldier" will be included on the band's self-titled set, due May 6. It follows 2005's "Seventeen Days," which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200. The single "It's Not My Time" is currently making waves on mainstream-rock, modern-rock and pop charts.

Arnold spoke to LiveDaily about "Citizen Soldier," the new album and why "3 Doors Down" carries a more up-tempo groove.

LiveDaily: You must be happy with the success of the single "It's Not My Time."

Brad Arnold: "It's Not My Time" is doing awesome. It's doing really good at radio. It's turned out really well for us. It gets you excited when you're fixin' to start a tour and you can go out there and play some shows.

How long has it been since you went out on tour?

It's been awhile. We only went on one tour last year and, before that, it had been on the "Seventeen Days" tour since we'd been on tour. We took a little time off and we kind of let our heads rest for a little while. We wanted to be hungry for it again. We're sure hungry for it now. It's nice to have a break--but it's so exciting to have a new record out. We're so excited about people hearing it and going and playing some shows. I can't wait.

How did the song "Citizen Soldier" come to be? I've seen the video numerous times over the last year in the movie theaters.

The National Guard approached us. They were wanting to do this spot in the movie theaters for the last year, but they needed a song for the spot. They asked us to do it and we were really, really happy to do it. We just had some conversations with [a National Guard representative], and he kind of told me the points to hit on. Sometimes the hardest thing about writing a song is actually having something to write about. When somebody gives you a good idea of something to write about, it's pretty easy. I was really excited about doing it. Antoine Fuqua directed the video. He did an awesome job on it. It turned out really good. We're proud to be a part of that and support our troops. Anytime you can give them a pat on the back and say thank you ... They give up so much for us. We were proud to do it.

Why did you decide to name your forthcoming album "3 Doors Down"?

We haven't done one that was self-titled, except for a little demo we'd done at home one time. We feel that these songs are kind of a cross section of who we are, at least who we are at the time. We didn't think of a better title.

I read in your bio that the recording process was an intense period of growth and soul searching. Would you say that's accurate?

We spent a year writing and recording it. A lot can happen. We all grew as people. We were all in transitional stages in our lives. I think it influenced the music a lot. I think it was good for us.

How do you feel the new songs fit in with your catalog? Is it closer to your earlier works or a natural progression?

I kind of relate it to the early material in a sense. But, in the same way, you learn as you go and we learned a lot as we went. You learn how to do things better. You just get more polished. Hopefully you grow as a band, you grow as musicians, and hopefully I grow as a singer. It did kind of take us back a little bit to the heavy side. It has its ballads on it, but it's definitely got some rock songs on it.

I listened to the new songs on your MySpace page. They seem a little more up tempo.

Yeah, yeah. I guess you write what you want to play live. I've said that before and it's very true. When you get to play some ballads, you want to write some songs that rock out, too. You want to go out and play them on tour.

Who produced the new set?

Johnny K. He also did "Seventeen Days." He was another one who was glad that we had a lot more time to work on this record, as opposed to the last one. The last one, we had time constraints. This time, the record company said, "When you get the record done, we'll be ready for it." So we just took our time and really settled in there. Johnny did a great job this time.

Did the longer time period lend itself to experimentation?

Most definitely. We had a lot more time to go in there and play around and see how it turns out. You get so many more opportunities to put those little nuances in there to the songs that maybe people don't actually hear. But it just creates a vibe to the music. That was one of the main things that was so much nicer about having so much longer to work on it, was just that opportunity you get to really absorb the song before it's final product and let it grow.