Fifteen years is a lifetime in music. Bands break up. Fans grow up. Dreams evolve. Yet somehow, the songs that once soundtracked late-night MySpace scrolling, AIM away messages, burned CDs and summer drives with your best friends never really leave you. They simply wait for the right moment to find you again.
That’s exactly what The Cab has done.
With the release of their long-awaited third studio album, Chasing Crowns, and their first headlining tour in more than a decade, the Las Vegas pop-rock favorites aren’t simply revisiting the past — they’re rewriting their future. And after catching up with frontman Alex DeLeon during rehearsals before the Back From The Dead Tour kicked off, one thing became abundantly clear: this comeback isn’t fueled by nostalgia. It’s fueled by purpose.
“We’re doing it because we really, really want to — not because we have to,” DeLeon tells Celeb Secrets exclusively. “We get to play music with our best friends. What an amazing thing that is.”
That perspective may be the biggest difference between The Cab of 2011 and the band standing onstage in 2026. Back then, they were teenagers turned arena rockers almost overnight, graduating high school before immediately spending years playing more than 200 shows annually. Success came quickly, but growing up happened even faster.
“I wanted to figure out who I was outside of The Cab,” DeLeon explains. “Some of us became fathers, some of us became husbands and partners… taking that time made us realize we’re here because we love this.”
That growth is woven throughout Chasing Crowns, the band’s first full-length album in nearly 15 years. Written over nearly a decade across cities spanning Nashville, Bali and Italy, the 18-track record is more of a scrapbook documenting life’s biggest milestones rather than just a collection of songs.
Inspired by the Japanese philosophy of Kintsugi, which celebrates repairing broken pottery with gold rather than hiding its cracks, the album embraces every chapter that brought the band back together.
“Things break. Things fall apart. But you can come back and repair them,” DeLeon says.
It’s a fitting metaphor for a band whose hiatus now feels less like an ending and more like an intermission.
Rather than chasing the expectations surrounding beloved records like Whisper War, Symphony Soldier and Lady Luck EP, The Cab leaned into the DNA that made fans fall in love in the first place while allowing themselves room to grow.
“I think people love you for a reason,” DeLeon says. “If you stay authentic, the fans understand that. We wanted every Cab fan to hear something on this record and say, ‘This is why I loved The Cab.'”
From the explosive opening punches of “Locked and Loaded” and “Back From The Dead” to the heartfelt closer “Hellraiser,” written for DeLeon’s daughter, Chasing Crowns captures a band that’s matured without sacrificing the arena-ready hooks, emotional lyricism and genre-blending ambition that defined them from the beginning.
Fatherhood, in particular, transformed DeLeon’s songwriting.
“It softened me a lot,” he admits. “You don’t take anything for granted anymore. I just want to make my daughter proud.”
And that shift extends far beyond the music. When we asked what he used to chase that no longer matters, DeLeon’s answer speaks volumes about where The Cab stands today.
“When you’re young, it’s all about numbers and climbing ladders,” he reflects. “Now it’s so much more important to have something mean everything to a few people than have a lot of people where it doesn’t mean anything.”
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On Friday (June 26) we caught the band’s Back From The Dead Tour when it stopped at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey. From the moment we walked into a venue that shaped who we were as teens and twenty-somethings, we knew that this show wasn’t just another concert.
For nearly two hours, strangers became friends again. Fans who first discovered The Cab through MySpace playlists, Tumblr edits and warped headphones wrapped their arms around one another as every lyric echoed through the packed room. Parents introduced their children to the songs that defined their own teenage years, while younger fans — many discovering the band through the viral resurgence of “Angel With a Shotgun” — finally experienced those songs live for the very first time. It was beautifully generational and a reunion in the making.
Opening with “Locked and Loaded” before weaving effortlessly through fan favorites like “Temporary Bliss,” “Vegas Skies,” “Bounce,” “Endlessly” and the emotionally charged finale of “Angel With a Shotgun,” the setlist felt less like a greatest-hits package and more like a carefully crafted love letter to everyone who waited.
“This tour is really a thank you to all the old fans,” Alex told us ahead of the multi-city run.
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Perhaps the biggest surprise wasn’t simply hearing these songs again — it was realizing just how naturally The Cab slipped back into this role. There wasn’t an ounce of rust to be found as DeLeon’s vocals remained effortlessly commanding, the band’s chemistry felt instinctive, and their infectious energy transformed Starland Ballroom into the kind of sweaty, euphoric club show that reminds you why live music still matters. The guys proved that they never lost their spark, but more importantly, they reminded everyone why that spark mattered in the first place.
For many of us, these songs helped shape who we became. They introduced us to lifelong friends we met through music forums, social media and shared playlists long before algorithms decided what we should listen to next. They reminded us that music has always been about community — and that rare feeling of finding people who understand you before you’ve even met them.
Rather than asking fans to relive the past, The Cab has created something that honors it while giving everyone permission to keep growing alongside them.
“I hope the fans know they’ve affected me tenfold more than they think I’ve affected them,” DeLeon says. “They’ve changed my life.”
After fifteen years, one unforgettable album and one triumphant tour later, it’s safe to say the feeling is mutual.
For more on The Cab, make sure to watch our full interview with Alex below — and don’t forget to let us know if you’re loving Chasing Crowns by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sliding into our DMs on Instagram at @celebsecrets.
