Hoobastank Reveal They Once Scrapped a Rihanna Feature: ‘Total Lack of Foresight’

Following Rihanna’s explosive Super Bowl LVII halftime show, Hoobastank’s Doug Robb admitted the band once rejected a feature from Rihanna.

“Back when we were recording our third album, ‘Every Man For Himself,’ we were approached by someone at our label, Island Def Jam, about potentially featuring a ‘new artist’ on one of the songs,” Robb told Consequence in a statement. “This kind of stuff happens all the time. We said, ‘Sure. Who do you have in mind?’ It was Rihanna. I had never heard of her. I don’t think anyone else in the band had, either, at the time.”

Robb revealed the song Rihanna recorded for them was “Inside Of You,” from the alt-rock band’s 2006 album.

“I think they rearranged some of the music to create a pre-chorus section, that wasn’t originally part of the arrangement, for [Rihanna] to sing a small part on,” he continued. “We heard it and didn’t really love it so we passed on using it. It’s really just that simple. I think we had already gotten used to hearing the song as it was written so it just felt weird to us.”

Robb first shared the fun fact in a tweet that included a video of Rihanna’s Halftime performance with Hoobstank’s “Crawling In The Dark” synced to match.

“Displaying a total lack of foresight, we didn’t use that version of the song for the album,” Robb wrote.

In the comments, several fans asked if the band would be open to releasing the record or, more pressingly, if there are legal obstacles in the way: “Not sure,” he replied.

“I think if we had done a proper collaboration with her, writing the song knowing there was gonna be another artist on it and making space for it, we probably would have felt differently and used it,” Robb told the publication. “I think the way we did it was just wrong. The paint had already dried so to speak. Well, it was that, plus a stunning lack of vision to see what a star Rihanna was going to be.”

This would’ve been around this same time that Rihanna was set to release her career-launching 2005 album “Music of the Sun,” which included the highly successful single “Pon De Replay.” In the end, Hoobstank’s “Inside of You” was not nearly as influential as their timeless 2004 hit “The Reason,” which enjoyed a resurgence amongst several other timeless ’00s hits on TikTok in 2021.

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