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Noughties band whose hit song streamed by billions unrecognisable 20 years on

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There's great news for Hoobastank fans - they're touring again in 2024 (Image: WireImage)

As Hoobastank gears up to celebrate the 20th anniversary of smash hit song The Reason by hitting the road, fans have been taking a nostalgia trip - and so much has changed.

The rockers, lead vocalist Doug Robb, guitarist Dan Estrin, drummer Chris Hesse and bassist Markku Lappalainen, formed back in 1994 in California but it wasn't until ten years later that they made some serious money when the tune was streamed more than a billion times. They look a lot different to how fans remember them as they get ready to tour again.

They may not be fresh-faced youngsters anymore, but they're still very much active on the music circuit and have big plans to take to the stage, six years on from their last record, which was their seventh studio album. They can't wait to get back on the road and they know which song will be most in demand.

Noughties band whose hit song streamed by billions unrecognisable 20 years on eiddidtziqtzprwThey group have matured and fans can't wait to see them perform again (hoobastank)

Doug said he and his band-mates never anticipated such popularity, or for The Reason to do the numbers it did. Still today fans download the hit that really made their name and with many of their friends now having children, they hear all about it with the tune also popular on TikTok.

Asked by CNN if they thought it would achieve such levels of success, he said: “I don’t think anybody did, to be honest with you, because when we were done recording the songs that we thought were going to be on the album, obviously it was one of them. But it was, in our eyes, the kind of the token mellower or softer song that we had put on a previous album and we had always done even in stuff prior to our record deal.”

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He went on to reveal: "Lyrically it was written by piecing together a bunch of old lyrics that I had not used and other stream-of-conscious-type writings - and so after 20 years of being asked that question and thinking about it, the song is really about me, I guess.”

The 2004 song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart weeks after it was released and it soon shot up to number one on the US Modern Rock Tracks. At the Grammy Awards a year later the group received nominations including Best Rock Album and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group.

That wasn't the end of their success. Hoobastank was also nominated for five Billboard Music Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards. "In our old age and wisdom, we pride ourselves on being a band that's really self-aware of who we are and how we approach things," Doug told the Grammys website earlier this year. "I think we're in a place where you can say whatever you want, and it's just water off a duck's back, so I get a good laugh out of it."

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