Like some other famous frontmen, including Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and White Stripes’ Jack White, Stephan Jenkins started out as a drummer. These roots shaped the sound and success of his band, Third Eye Blind.

Jenkins plays rhythm guitar like he plays drums, giving Third Eye Blind melancholic strummers, like early hit “Jumper” and more recent “Box of Bones,” subtle strut underneath the scars.

“Kickdrum’s the low-E [string],” Jenkins explains to me over the phone. “Cymbals are the high-E, then [the A, D, G and B strings] between are the snare and toms.”

His singing’s also very rhythmic, drawing from the likes of punk legends The Clash, dance-band New Order and classic-folkie Cat Stevens. “If you’re in with the drums,” Jenkins says, “it’s that space in-between that gives you a sense of gravity or lack thereof. That’s what makes it jam, you know?”

That kind of vocal groove makes Third Eye Blind rockers like “Again,” a standout from the band’s most recent studio album, 2021′s “Our Bande Apart,” extra adhesive.

And off course, head-bobbing vocals drive “Semi-Charmed Life,” possibly the greatest earworm of ‘90s rock. That now classic track’s arrangement, melody and delivery were so undeniable they transported transgressive lyrics about sex and snorting drugs to the top of the mainstream.

On the first sunny day in his longtime home of San Francisco in a month, Jenkins is chilling at a local café when a publicist connects us via phone for this interview. “I’m out and I thought I brought the right charger, and I didn’t,“ Jenkins says. “My phone does not carry much juice, so I want to make sure we get into it.”

And get into it we did, in the best way, during our 15-minute interview. For a guy who’s sometimes scanned surly in interviews, I found Jenkins to be an open and thoughtful chat.

Jenkins is talking with me because Third Eye Blind is set to return to the road with a tour that opens March 10 in New Orleans and will take them through the South, East and West. Asked about his favorite Southern music, he cites classic Muscle Shoals R&B. Jenkins thinks the 2013 “Muscle Shoals” documentary film, “might be the best music documentary ever made, because people didn’t really know that the funkiest people on Earth were these [white guys] from Alabama. It’s just the best story ever.”

Over the years, Third Eye Blind has released seven studio albums. Last year they released “Unplugged,” which featured acoustic versions of their hits and classics. In addition to Jenkins, the current lineup features classic era drummer Brad Hargreaves, longtime members guitarist Kryz Reid and bassist Alex LeCavalier and keyboardist/guitarist Colin Creev, onboard since 2019.

Jenkins has been writing new material and Third Eye Blind will be playing some of this unreleased material on the upcoming tour. Asked to describe the band’s next musical direction, he says, “This latest stuff is more about opening up a groove and just kind of letting the vocal roll, let it roll. It’s more about very simple beats, a bassline and a vocal. Less organic. And then after that, I really want to go with big guitars and just make an Oasis record.”

With new Third Eye Blind songs, “Eighty percent of the lyrics usually get done very quickly,” Jenkins says, “and then the last 20 percent can take years.”

Since Third Eye Blind released one of the ‘90s’ best debut albums (1997′s self-titled effort), at the height of the CD sales era, they’ll always have an audience. Many people came of age to that debut, which meshed alt-rock, power-pop and rap for a sound that while sleek always kept a foot on the pavement. Instinctual vocals combined with well-crafted arrangements. This aesthetic helped “Third Eye Blind” move more than six million copies.

Third Eye Blind’s debut birthed three top 10 singles, including “Semi-Charmed Life,” “Jumper” and blue gem “How’s It Going to Be.” The album continues to resonate today. Its songs have been streamed close to a billion times on Spotify alone. They’ve also been a big influence on later stars, like Avril Lavigne and Five Seconds of Summer. In addition to Jenkins and Hargreaves, that era of the band included guitarist/cowriter Kevin Cadogan and bassist Arion Salazar.

“Third Eye Blind” may be 26-years-old now, but its music is forever youthful. Jenkins says even today, “Our audience is very young. And so there’s just kind of this renewal of finding something vital in our songs.”

Whereas many CD-era big-sellers contained filler material, “Third Eye Blind” sounded like a greatest-hits album. In addition to the aforementioned top-10s, other standouts include anthemic-cathartic cuts like “Losing a Whole Year,” “Thanks a Lot” and “Graduate.”

Jenkins wrote most of the debut, including “Semi-Charmed Life,” in the bedroom of his Haight Street place back then. “I just kind of sat there in front of a bay window in this open Victorian flat,” Jenkins says, “and worked through it.”

Back in the ‘90s, rising rock bands were a crowded heat. A band really had to have something to find fans, among a field that also included No Doubt, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Weezer, Green Day, Oasis, Rage Against The Machine, Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins to name a few. And that’s just bands who released their first album in the ‘90s. Not all those bands’ audiences overlapped. But many of them did. Sure, lots of people bought CDs back then and concert tickets were still affordable. But the competition was insane.

In addition to Jenkins’ talent, his smoldering good-looks and bad-boy charisma didn’t hurt either. He dated some very famous, successful and pretty people. Jenkins was watchable enough in Third Eye Blind music videos, people started putting him in movies and TV shows too. For example, his turn as a hair-metal heel in 2001 Mark Wahlberg film “Rock Star.”

Third Eye Blind continued to release successful albums, starting with platinum-selling 1999′s “Blue,” which included the Cars-kissed hit “Never Let You Go.” Third Eye Blind’s next three albums all debuted at 13 or higher on the Billboard 200, including 2009′s “Ursa Major,” their fourth studio release, at number three.

Unlike some other successful bands that debuted around the same time, Third Eye Blind isn’t forever entombed in the ’90s. “I love keeping our old songs alive,” Jenkins says, “and that makes me very happy. But the moment I’m not inspired by what I’m doing now I’ll quit.”

“Another Life,” closing track on 2003 LP “Out of the Vein,” is a great example of the vibrant music the band’s continued to make after their original decade. Later songs mean enough to Third Eye Blind fans some even have those lyrics, like for the “Ursa Major” cut “Monotov’s Private Opera” literally tattooed on them.

“It’s gratifying and flattering,” Jenkins says of that level of fandom. “I’m sort of aware of the perils of moving outside the bounds of humility though. Like you see Elon Musk just falling apart. He didn’t learn anything from Kanye, where these guys actually think that they’re geniuses. And it’s just ruinous. In was instilled in me long ago that you’re in service of the song, not yourself, not your ego.”

Asked how his songwriting has changed over time, Jenkins says, “I don’t know how much evolution there is. For me, it’s always just about hearing a condition, and I know that sounds kind of like nonsense, but you just kind of download it. There’s an element of the mystic in it when I’m at my best. It’s about making that world, so that when you hear the song you kind of move into it.”

Third Eye Blind’s tour comes to Mark C. Smith Concert Hall at Huntsville, Alabama’s Von Braun Center, address 700 Monroe Street, 7:30 p.m. March 13. Tickets are $53 and up (plus applicable fees) via ticketmaster.com and the VBC box office. Complete tour dates at thirdeyeblind.com.

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