Dan Smyers of country duo Dan + Shay reflected this week on the origin of the “+” in their name.
“Ever since we started this band, we’ve been made fun of for having a ‘+’ in our logo (among other things),” the singer wrote in an Instagram post. "The vision from day one was that, if someday we ever got to headline arenas, we’d have a ‘+’ stage in the middle of the floor and make it do all kinds of crazy stuff. this also kept us from using an ‘&,’ because that would surely be a pain in the ass to build lol.
“At the time, it was such a long shot, but y’all have stuck by our sides through every bit of this journey, and here we are. … thanks for making this dream come true.”
Smyers included photos of the +-shaped stage on the duo’s current Dan + Shay The (Arena) Tour as well as a screenshot of a 2013 email from creative director Patrick Tracy with a proposed logo featuring a “+” that reads: “I think we’ve got a logo boys! Thoughts?”